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Book Cover |
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Excerpt |
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"This is stupid," Fu mumbled
from the bottom of the terra-cotta barrel.
"How long do we have to stay
inside this thing? I feel like a pickled vegetable."
"Shhh!" warned his brother Malao, lying directly on top of him.
"Grandmaster told us to remain perfectly quiet, and perfectly still."
"I know what Grandmaster said," Fu replied. "But we can't stay
crammed in here forever. I say we get out right now. I say we stop
hiding and fight!"
"Calm yourself, Fu," whispered his brother Seh from on top of Malao. "We
are all just as cramped and uncomfortable as you are. But we must do as
Grandmaster said and remain silent and hidden. The enemy within our
walls is unlike any faced by Cangzhen Temple in more than a thousand
years."
"Yeah, yeah," Fu said. "Stop being so dramatic. You guys are sounding
more and more like Grandmaster every day. I don't care who's out there.
We're all masters now. We've all passed the tests. We shouldn't be
hiding like a bunch of girls. We should be--"
"Hush!" snapped Fu's brother Hok, who was lying on top of Seh. "That's
enough, Fu! You're making even me angry now."
"I don't care!" Fu replied. "If you think--"
"Quiet!" hissed Fu's oldest brother, Long, from the top of the pile.
"Control your tongues, all of you! Brother Fu, empty the words from your
mouth and then empty your mind. You must take control of your thoughts
and your emotions, or they will control you."
"You must take control of your thoughts and your emotions, or they
will control you," Fu mocked. "Give me a break, Long. Right now we
need action, not philosophy."
Fu was quickly losing his
patience. He could hear enemy horses racing up and down the brick
pathways that crisscrossed the temple grounds. He also heard weapons
clashing and men crying out--plus a terrible, new sound. It was almost
like thunder, except every boom was followed by a pain-filled scream.
Fu's keen ears recognized each and every scream. Warrior monks were
falling.
A low growl resonated deep within Fu's chest. He didn't understand why
his four brothers, stacked above him in the barrel, were holding back.
Like him, each had mastered a style of animal kung fu that reflected
both his personality and his body type. In fact, their true natures were
so perfectly matched with their kung fu styles that they were each named
after the animal they mirrored. They were born to fight. But they
wouldn't.
Fu, the tiger, growled again. His brothers didn't look like him, walk
like him, talk like him, or even smell like him. And they certainly
didn't think like him. He called them "brothers" because they all were
Buddhist and lived in the temple together. In reality, he and his
"brothers" were orphans. What Fu needed were real brothers. Brothers who
would fight alongside him.
Fu grunted under the weight of the others. "I can't believe we are just
going to--"
"Please!" Long interrupted. "No more talking! We all have to
remain silent. Brother Fu, focus your breathing. Meditate like the rest
of us have been doing. If you find that you cannot meditate, just lie
still and relax."
"That's easy for you to say," Fu replied. "You're on top. Try lying down
here at the bottom of the pile in a pool of water with Malao's nasty
feet pressing up against your lips."
Malao giggled softly and wiggled his toes.
"If you do that again, Malao, I'll bite them off one at a time," Fu
said. "I swear I will."
Malao giggled again but kept his toes still.
How much longer am I going to be stuck in here? Fu wondered. He
hoped for his brothers' sake they would all get out of the barrel soon,
because he wasn't sure if he could control himself much longer. |
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Synopsis |
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The
story starts off with the Cangzhen Temple, a secret temple in China and
1650 AD, being attacked by a 16-year old former pupil of the monks,
Ying, and an army from the Emperor. Ying is in search of the secret
scrolls that will allow him to train and learn the different fighting
techniques. He longs to be a Dragon, but is only an Eagle.
During the
attack, before he dies, Grandmaster of the temple instructs his five youngest
pupils--each a master of a different fighting style (Tiger, Monkey,
Snake, Crane and Dragon)--to search out the
secrets of their pasts. Only then, he tells them, will they be able to
avenge their fallen brothers and understand the temple's secret scrolls.
They flee into the forest, but Fu goes back to the temple to retrieve
the scrolls. There he battles and defeats Ying's number-one-in-command, Tonglong, and takes the scrolls from him while again turning back into
the forest.
While traveling through the forest looking for his brothers,
he runs across a man, his son, and two warriors who have captured a
tiger and her cub and are in the process of killing them. Fu interferes
with the killing and rescues the cub while whacking the man's son in the
head and knocking him out. Fu leaves the scene and soon enters a town
and is captured and put into a bamboo cage. The mayor of the town is the
man that was in the forest and the tiger had just killed his wife.
Now
his son is deaf in one ear because of Fu's actions. Fu, feeling bad for
what he has done by acting out in anger, tries to win the heart of the
boy. But the town is against him and is holding him for Ying. When the
town starts to realize that Fu is not the enemy, but Ying is, there is a
dilemma as to whether they should let Fu free. The mayor fears Ying's
vengeance and the safety of the town if they were to let Fu go.
Tiger is the first book of five in The Five Ancestors series
written by Jeff Stone. It is a young adult fictional story that takes
place China over 350 years ago. The story revolves around five young
monks all between the ages of 11 and 13 and their special fighting
techniques. The main characters in this series are: Fu - Tiger, Malao -
Monkey, Seh - Snake, Hok - Crane, and Long - Dragon.
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Review |
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From the first chapter of Tiger by Jeff Stone, I knew I was going
to enjoy this book. The story moves along at a lighting pace and the
main character of Fu is quite likable. Young readers will instantly like
that these five monks are both young, yet masters of their craft. That
each one is trained to fight like the animal that Grandmaster has chosen
for them will only make the readers enjoy the story more, as it really
sets each main character apart from the others.
Ying is the perfect
enemy, as he is older and has also been trained at the Cangzhen
Temple by Grandmaster, so the remaining five monks know him. Ying hates
the fact that he wasn't chosen to be a Dragon, like both Grandmaster and
Long, so he left the temple a year ago and now he returns at the head of
the new Emperor's army to retrieve the five scrolls and kill all of the
monks.
Jeff Stone has created and fantastic story concept in The Five
Ancestors that all young readers will enjoys. I highly recommend picking
up the first book in this series and look forward to more tales that
Jeff Stone will spin in the remaining four books. I can't wait to read
the next book, Monkey.
I
rated this book a 9 out of 10. |
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