This is a very challenging read.
This is a fun middle grade adventure. This book felt like it lacked in depth of characters and the storyline needed more detail

A gentle time slip adventure that explores character and family in a lovely way. A refreshing change from the high octane silly books my 10 year old has picked up recently.

The Time Traveller and the Tiger is a heart-warming and transporting story of discovery and friendship, the writing is incredibly easy to read, aimed at young adults this will appeal to so many readers, I think younger children will enjoy the magical and time-travelling elements too as it's not too taxing to read with it's lovely adventure.

DNF at 15%. Unfortunately I am just not intrigued enough to continue with this book. Nothing about it grabbed my interest.

A brilliant middle grade novel with time travel and some really important messages about conservation and looking after our world. I really enjoyed it.

What a brilliant read.

My son and I devoured this in a weekend.

It was easy for him to get his head around and the cover was a beautifully illustrated.

2.5 stars.

One of Tania's other books 'The One Safe Place' is one of my all-time favourites so I was really excited to see she had a new book coming out. This book, unfortunately, did not live up to my excitement. It has an interesting start but then becomes very slow and kind of frustrating to read. Elsie, who time-travels to the 1940s to stop her great uncle killing a tiger, something he regretted his whole life, takes the time-travel aspect of her journey very easily, and too-readily gives herself away. The time-altering of her return also didn't seem to bother her at all. Child-John was mostly just annoying, and Elsie I never warmed to simply because we never really learn anything about her -- her story is really just John's story, and that was a shame. The story itself stomps back and forth through the jungle (without much mishap) and eventually they are half-kidnapped by some hunters and then resolve to take the hunting lodge down and expose their crooked tiger-killing business. This might have been great if some of these themes weren't so muddled that at times it felt less like environmental heroism and more like annoyance the lodge was cheating by making hunting an easy sport (the sport itself is surely more the issue, not how people go about it?). This book felt to me like it needed some more time being fleshed out, in both character and plot, and further time in editing. It just felt too messy to really engage, and that's such a shame as I have loved Tania's previous books and her settings were lush and well-evoked throughout. It's just not a memorable book.

This is a truly wonderful action-packed and heartfelt timeslip adventure that gripped me from the start, and kept me entranced throughout as it took me from modern England back to 1946 Central India.

The story opens in Central India, 1946 with 12-year-old John Lassiter feeling the wrongness of his killing of a tiger during a hunt which leaves him with a limp. This is a feeling of regret that will remain with him throughout his life. The story then moves forward to modern-day England where an elderly John is being visited by his great-niece, Elsie who is staying with him for a week. She soon finds a tiger skin rug in his house, and John tells her of its origins. There is an air of sadness about John as he tells Elsie that his best friend, Mandeep, had given him a rare seed on his last day in India: the flower that catches time.

When visiting John’s wonderful greenhouse, Elsie witnesses the magical flower bloom and is transported back in time to 1946 Central India where she meets a young John on the morning of which he is going to hunt the tiger.

Elsie introduces herself as Kelsie Corvette, the strong and courageous heroine of the adventure she has been writing and rather different from the real Elsie who is often overlooked by others. She is determined to stop John making a mistake he will regret for the rest of his life, but will she be able to overcome his stubbornness, and his single-minded focus on tracking and killing the tiger?

John is not very welcoming of Elsie, and only begrudgingly accepts her presence. Has she been sent back in time to save John, the tiger or both? As the children hunt the tiger, will the hunted become the hunter? The tiger’s viewpoint is powerfully portrayed showing its instinctual need for survival, its desire to return to its territory and its rage that it has been banished from its Kingdom by men.

When John’s determination to follow the tiger gets him into serious trouble, he is rescued by his friend, Mandeep who is an animal lover, willing to put himself at risk to save animals from hunters. When Mandeep is confronted by a furious hunter, the children find themselves at the heart of a powerful deception … will the children be able reveal the terrible and heart-breaking truth and so save those in danger?

I loved the rich description of the Indian landscape with its animals and plants and the portrayal of both the danger and the awe-inspiring beauty in nature. I also enjoyed the authenticity of the character voices, especially that of a young John whose set mindset is challenged by Elsie and by what he witnesses. This story also gives an insight into British colonisation of India and the social inequalities and unrest of the time.

This story has a very powerful conservation message woven throughout especially with regard to the decline of the tiger population due to being hunted for medicine, habitat loss and especially trophy hunting.

I loved how the threads of this story came together at the end of the book as they wove through history, showing what happened to the 1946 participants as a result of Elsie’s time travel.

This is a powerful and heartfelt story which captured me completely and transported me into a remarkable adventure in a richly described Indian landscape with its majestic creatures.

The Time Traveller and the Tiger
Author: Tania Unsworth
TBC Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

I must admit, I was so swept off my metaphorical feet by the SPECTACULAR cover of this book when I saw it on Netgalley, that I had semi-made up my mind to request it even before reading the blurb. And the blurb just confirmed that yes, this was a book that had to be read! Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher Head of Zeus and the author Tania Unsworth for sharing the eARC!

Eleven-year old Elsie is used to being unobtrusive and blending in the background- at school, in choir, even in her parents’ busy lives. She is quiet, careful, and not as dull as everyone thinks. She dreams of doing amazing things that make people notice her, but channels them into stories featuring her alter ego, Kelsie Corvette, who stands tall and proud in the spotlight- not like shy, short Elsie.

A scheduling mix-up results in her having to spend a week of her holidays with her Great Uncle John, someone whom she hasn’t met since toddlerhood. Uncle John is kind, gentle and very old. He has a very simple house with a wonderful extravagant greenhouse attached to it, overflowing with tropical shrubs and trees and vines and flowering plants. And in his spare room is a tiger-skin rug- a bitter reminder of the one thing that Uncle John regrets, and has regretted all his life.

An unexpected early-morning encounter with a mystical plant in the greenhouse transports Elsie seventy-four years into the past, to the wilds of central India that is still under British rule. Suddenly, she is trailing 12-year old Uncle John (of course, he isn’t an Uncle then!) in the sunlit jungle as he tracks down a tiger with a rifle on his shoulder. He is determined to hunt a tiger that is reputed to be a man-eater (even though he doesn’t really believe that) so that he can be do that one amazing thing that will make his parents sit up and notice him. He is kind but very stubborn and insists on following the tiger tracks- even when his friend Mandeep, who knows everything there is to know about the jungle, tells him that the tiger is not a man eater; even when Elsie pleads with him to give up, because she wants to save the tiger and save John from a lifetime of regret. So Elsie (who tells him he is Kelsie who has just come to India from England- which is entirely true!) has to physically stop him from shooting the tiger when it unexpectedly comes in front of them.

But bigger and more sinister dangers lie ahead- an inept hunter ready to pay any amount of money to shoot a leopard, a bumbling theme park owner who wants to hunt a tiger so that he can recreate the experience back home in his theme park, an ominous hunting lodge hidden in the depths of the jungle, filled with sickening objects fashioned out of animals- rugs made of animal skins, a waste basket made from an elephant foot, a clock shaped out of a tiger’s skull, a chair with tusks for arms, lampshades made of snakeskin.... And most dangerous of all, the cold, cruel businessman who owns the lodge, who has developed an elaborate and evil plot that ensures that each of his “guests” gets to shoot a tiger.

Can Elsie, John and Mandeep overthrow these nefarious plans? Can tigers roam free, safe from the menace of hunting? And can Kelsie/Elsie find her way back home to 2020?

I loved the story because I love the jungles of India and have a deep admiration for the magnificent Bengal Tiger. I specially liked the fact that this story is based in Bandhavgarh (it’s never mentioned explicitly, but there are enough clues to identify the location) because I have been to Bandhavgarh thrice so far and loved every single trip- Bandhavgarh never disappoints when it comes to tiger watching!

Another thing that I appreciated about the book was that it touches upon, albeit briefly, other socially relevant topics, in addition to the main message of conservation. Elsie is indignant that John takes Mandeep for granted because he is the gardener’s son - she points out to the reader how their friendship is not really equal or fair because of the imbalance of power. She bristles at the way the British treat Indians, despite having taken over their land. This anger is on point and very necessary, so that the young readers of today understand the ills of colonialism and social and economic inequality.

Another neat thing this book did is kind of solve (for me) the problem and paradox of time travel- if someone travels back in time and changes the past, the reason for changing the past ceases to exist in the new future so why would that someone visit the past at all? But this book helped me see time travel differently: that time travel isn’t linear, i.e. on a single path. The action of changing the past ‘shunts’ the proceedings onto a whole different path with a different future THAT ALREADY EXISTS AS SOME KIND OF A PARALLEL UNIVERSE. Like shunting a train along a different track that is already laid out. Mind= Blown! Also, the time traveller needs to be unrelated to the story or the participants of the story so that changing the past impacts the future of only the story and its participants, and not the time traveller. Elsie could travel back in time and send Uncle John and Mandeep’s lives along entirely different tracks because doing that wouldn’t - and -didn’t- affect her life. Phew. Bit much about time travel? 😅

But most of all, I loved Tania Upsworth’s writing. Rarely have I seen such beautiful and thoughtful writing in middle-grade books. Sharing some excerpts here that I particularly liked:

“Every atom in John’s body froze. Then his heart bounded into frenzy, and the stars above him trembled, as if the sky itself was being shaken.”

“His leg would never fully heal. He would always walk with a limp, although in time he would get used to it. But all his life – even when he was an old man – he would carry the sense of wrongness he’d felt that morning when the tiger died. As if something had happened which wasn’t meant to happen. As if a mistake had been made in the universe. And because of it, he would live his life the same way he walked. Always just a little out of step.”

“Elsie nearly screamed when she opened the door. Then she saw it wasn’t a tiger. It was just something that had once been one. Now it lay with its empty legs spread out, as flat and as dry as a great, striped flower pressed between the pages of a book.”

“It was blue, the way hills are blue. When they are so far away, they have almost turned to sky.”

“For the first time, she could see that he really was her Great-Uncle John. The boy standing beside her and the old man in the greenhouse were a single person. Time would change him, and time would leave him just the same.”

“The night brought weight to the forest, turning the meadows and groves into solid blocks of darkness. Only the tiger was immune. The denser the shade, the more insubstantial he seemed to become, until he was as grey as smoke and almost as transparent.”

“He was built to vanish when he chose, the outline of his body splintering among the grass, his stripes dissolving into shadow, each back paw placed exactly where the front had been, to leave the fewest prints.”

“She opened her eyes to a world turned silver and gold. A bright haze hung over the stream, dazzled by rays of sun and the luminous sheen of water. Everything was shining; the wet stones, the feathery-tipped grasses, the termite mounds glittering with tiny specks of mica. Even the webs of the funnel spiders at the bases of the trees seemed to glow, like scraps of dream left over from the night. And there, by the edge of the water, stood a deer. It had tiny, pointed hooves and velvet horns and white spots dancing over its back as if it had brushed against the stars.”

“Elsie stared crossly at John. He hadn’t turned to look back at them, not even once. ‘I don’t know why he’s being such a bully,’ she said. ‘It is because he knows he is in the wrong,’ Mandeep said simply.”

“They might argue about trivial things, but when it really mattered, John always had the advantage, even though Mandeep was supposed to be his best friend.”

“The bond between the tiger and his prey ran deep. He knew the barasingha nearly as well as he knew himself. The tilt of its narrow face, the white, watchful roll of its eye, the tug of its jaws as it grazed among the reeds. The tiger stared at it and knew even its thoughts. For a single, unblinking, deadly instant, he BECAME it. His tail swayed, searching for perfect balance. Then he exploded into the water, covering the distance in two enormous bounds, feeling the rush of certainty that always came with action; the joy that every living thing experiences when it is doing what it was made to do.”

“At the far end, above a pool of dark green water, a vast statue lay stretched out. He lay as though asleep, one knee raised, his head resting on a pillow of stone, his calm face tilted to the side. Time had weathered him, blurring his outline under the downy creep of moss and yellow lichen. In places he was quite worn away. Yet this only seemed to deepen the stillness and serenity of his ancient features. As if he had lain so long there dreaming, he had become the dream itself.”

Highly recommended for readers aged 11 and older.

Er, uh, I am certainly not the targeted audience here but I do enjoy children's fiction. It didn't feel immersive or interesting enough but I guess kids would like it??

The Time Traveller and the Tiger is Tania Unsworth’s enchanting new book about a young girl’s magical trip to India in a spellbinding adventure for all ages. Elsie is used to being overlooked and having an uninteresting life, but then she is whisked back in time by a magical flower to India, where her Great-Uncle John is a twelve-year old boy trying to shoot a tiger. Somehow, she has to prevent him making the worst mistake of his life. But there are menacing enemies about who will stop at nothing to kill tigers. The interaction between Elsie and John is amusing, as Elsie unsuccessfully tries to persuade him that she is from the future. Elsie, Uncle John and his childhood friend, Mandeep, tread a dangerous path deeper and deeper into the jungle on their quest to save the tiger.

Told in part through the eyes of Mandeep, an Indian boy who wants to save the forest and the creatures who live inside it, and in part through the eyes of the tiger itself, this is an atmospheric adventure story with a strong message about the importance of conservation. The writing is sophisticated and memorable and will keep older readers thoroughly engaged, and the way the time travel plot develops has strong echoes of the classic, Tom’s Midnight Garden. The exciting jewel that is India comes to vivid life with memorable characters who jump off the pages and into your heart. A fast-paced romp through the forests and keeping the natural world front and centre the author paints a portrait of a much misunderstood and wonderfully majestic creature. Many thanks to Zephyr for an ARC.

The Time Traveller and the Tiger is a lush experience of Mother India. And the voice of the magnificent tiger, phenomenal! Thank you Zephyr Books for the e-ARC.

This books is for the lovers of adventures and also history. Travelling back in back is something we have dreamed for centuries and centuries. Elsie finds herself in this position - can she change the future, how brave can she be? How can someone change and evolve through time, back in time, revisiting time, given another chance in time? These are all questions that can be raised from this book. An enjoyable book to read exploring other cultures, different generations and time in history. Recommended!

Elsie is not at all looking forward to spending the school holidays with her Uncle John, a distant relative that she hasn't seen since she was a baby. She is resigned to the fact that she's in for a dreary summer.

Elsie goes off exploring the house and she discovers a tiger-skin rug in one of the spare rooms upstairs, the tiger's glassy eyes staring blankly into space. To make matters worse, she discovers that her uncle was the one who killed the tiger in 1946 whilst out in India - aged just 12 years old. Uncle John explains the guilt and shame he has carried ever since, that it was the worst thing he ever did and if he could change his actions he would.

Uncle John is very green fingered and he shows Elsie his greenhouse. Amongst the beautiful flowers he nurtures is an empty pot. Uncle John explains it contains a seed given to him many years ago by his childhood friend, Mandeep, in India. The flower is said only to bloom once in a life-time and is aptly named 'The Flower that Catches Time.'

Elsie explores the greenhouse again alone and where the empty pot once stood, a mysterious flower is blooming. Leaning forward to inhale the extraordinarily scent, Elsie is suddenly transported to Colonial India where she meets her Uncle John as a 12 year old boy. Can she stop him from making the biggest mistake of his life again and change the course of history? And how will Elsie get back to the present?

Elsie and John form a friendship (although often a love-hate relationship!) Tracking the tiger through the jungle with Mandeep, they discover a dark and dangerous underworld of world of animal hunting. These three courageous children must form a plan to protect the tigers and each other.

The narrative switches between the point of view of Elsie, Mandeep and the tiger throughout and this is really cleverly done. I also thoroughly enjoyed the rich description of the Indian jungle. This story has action, heroes, villains, dangerous animals and a satisfying ending to round it all off. A clever time-slip story which skilfully explores colonialism, racism, conservation and animal welfare.

Imagine starting into a flower that only flowers once in its lifetime one moment and stumbling back in time before you were even born the next. Well for Elsie that is exactly what happens while she is visiting her Uncle John to while away the long summer holidays. Elsie finds herself on a great adventure, not the one she imagined as she comes face to face with majestic tigers and is on a mission to change past events, setting the future on a different path altogether.

Join Elsie as she travels back in time, into the Indian Jungle, which conceals secrets and hidden depths.

This is an adventure story seeped in history, conservation and mystery links.

THE TIME TRAVELLER AND THE TIGER is one of those books that didn't really register with me as I read it. I've been sat here for about half an hour trying to work out something, anything to say. It's not that it's a "bad book", but that it wasn't particularly memorable. I didn't form any emotional reactions to the book, which is what I rely on when writing reviews.

The jungle felt very real, though. Hot and stuffy in the day, but cold at night. Bursting with plants and animals, it felt both dangerous and magical all at once - and all very different from the England that Elsie was used to.

Child-John is one of those snooty little boys you see in a lot of old classics - the one who says girls can't do anything and then is wonderfully shown up and sees the error of his ways. What I liked about his character was the dialect he used. It's just so spot on for the era, helping build the sense of time and place - not to mention highlight the contrast between his world and Elsie's.

There is a strong pro-conservation theme in this book - Elsie has found herself back in time with the mission to stop her great-uncle killing a tiger, which he regrets 70+ years later. Add in the secondary character Mandeep's attempts to stop the British hunters stalking in the forest, and the hunt Elsie, Mandeep, and John get caught up in, and the message is very clear throughout

The POV of the tiger was a little odd to get used to at first, but it was probably the most powerful tool shaping the message. It didn't quite humanise the tiger, and it was interesting to see how Tania wrote a "character" without the same level of conscious thought and awareness as her human characters. However, by showing its world and life, she made me want it to survive.

One thing that stood out to me was how calmly Elsie took the fact that she'd slipped back in time. She just took it in her stride, and when going home was raised as a potential issue, she didn't seem that worried. It was a bit odd, and a little unrealistic, that she wasn't freaking out - but appeared to just happily go along with it all.

I think, perhaps, this book would have appealed to me more had I been the target audience.

Elsie – or Kelsie Corvette, as she likes to be known – stumbles out of 2020 England and into pre-Independence India of her uncle’s childhood through a mystical flower that enables people, once in a lifetime, to travel through time, and tries to prevent him from making the biggest mistake of his life.

The author’s descriptions of the Indian jungle are magical and her depiction of colonial India, as well as her obvious passion for wildlife, compelling. Perhaps this novel would be more successful as a pure adventure – tigers and all – in the wilds of India; one that introduces young readers to the complex history of the British Empire, the themes of friendship and family, and still explores the issues of animal welfare. The time travel dimension takes away from, rather than adds to the success of the novel, in my opinion. Elsie’s leap through time is one of many jumps in the book – Sections of the adventure story of Elsie’s fictional heroine Kelsie Corvette are peppered through the book, and also interspersed are short sections of narrative written from the perspective of the tiger being hunted by Elsie’s Uncle John. Each are interesting diversions, and the nature writing is beautiful in its own right, but together add up to the reader feeling that a little too much has been attempted, and that consequently the cohesion of the novel is somewhat compromised.

Having said all this, ‘The Time Traveller and the Tiger’ was incredibly readable, and for its target audience would undoubtedly be an exciting read, and one that educates on the themes of conservation, history, racism, and also explores the importance of developing a sense of self-worth – as well as introducing the thrilling concept of time-travel and all its possibilities!

Unsworth undoubtedly has a gift as a writer, and ideas, characters, and settings worth exploring – she may just have attempted too many of them at once in this book!

When I read the blurb of this book I thought it was good and it made me want to read it.

I enjoyed the book and it made me think about the role we play in conservation and changing people attitudes. I enjoyed the adventure that the three children went on through the Indian Jungle and the descriptions or the plants and animals they saw.

I liked that Tania ended the book with what happened to the main characters in the years following. The only thing was that I found some of the first chapters confusing as different voices were used to tell the story, but it was not always clear as to who was narrating - I had to read part of the previous chapter or skim the chapter I was in to find out. This could have been solved by putting the name of the narrator at the beginning of the chapter.

The Time Traveller and the Tiger was a really enjoyable read. I loved that the heroine in the story was a normal child that other children could easily relate to with her parents too busy to spend time with her and I like how it addressed environmental issues that are important to children whilst also having an interesting historical context. The descriptions of India were vivid, transporting the reader to the time and place (1946 India). The characters were well developed - it was very easy to dislike the hunters with their lack of respect for the animals they hunted and their superior attitudes towards the local people. The tiger itself was a beautiful character, coming across as noble and intelligent, particularly when compared to the hunters. I will be recommending this book to children in year 5 and 6 who have an interest in conservation. Thank you for the opportunity to read this book.

This was a wonderfully written book that highlights the issues of trophy hunting in India post WW2. The story begins in the 21st century with Elsie vis ing her great uncle John. After the war, John tracked and killed a tiger, which he then kept as a painful reminder of what he did and his biggest regret. Elsie accidentally found herself back in 1946 and spent her time there with young John, his friend Mandeep and she made it her mission to encourage John not to make the biggest mistake of his life.

Whilst doing this, she encounters trophy hunters, including one who was drugging tigers as well as charging people obscene amounts of money to hunt them. It takes in the ethics and issues facing endangered species in a way that doesn’t detract from the story and in a way that certainly makes you think.

The book was well written and written from the point of view of Elsie, Mandeep and the tiger in a seemless fashion. I thoroughly enjoyed this story and would definitely recommend to children who are interested in conservation.