Once Upon a Tiger is a beautifully crafted picture book reinforcing the importance of empathy, friendship and discovering who we are meant to be. Words and pictures blend seamlessly to tell the story of three children who help a grumpy tiger learn what it means to be brave, daring and caring.
When readers first meet Tiger, he grumbles, grunts and growls at everyone in the forest. He doesn’t like to be disturbed. One morning, he awakens to find three children on his back. In his quest to rid himself of these strange creatures, he realises spending time with others isn’t so bad and there really is a fearless tiger inside of him. Their friendship gives them all strength and treasured memories of their time together.
This is a lovely story for exploring stereotypes and the power of friendship while the gorgeous illustrations of the tiger can be used to inspire some wonderful painting.
‘Behind the Book’ by Sarah Massini
Illustrating the child-cubs
I was very clear from the start about how the child-cubs were going to look. Usually, when I start a book, I do dozens of pencil studies to ‘find’ the characters, and to give the publisher an opportunity to decide which works best for them. But when I started illustrating ONCE UPON A TIGER, I only had myself to please. And so I did!
What DID take a long time to work out… which were the best colours and patterns for their clothes. After much trial and error I opted for simplicity and neutral tones, so there wouldn’t be a conflict with Tiger’s dominant orange, or with whatever else was going on the spread.
Once Upon a Tiger will be published on 10th September 2026 by Simon & Schuster.
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