Using simple and evocative language ‘Too Many Tigers’ is a detailed visual timeline that takes the reader on an emotional journey that tells the story of the extinction of the thylacine or Tasmanian tiger.
Through clever use of the adverb ‘too’ the book explores the impact that the arrival of convicts and settlers had on the landscape and native animals of Tasmania focusing on the loss of the thylacine. Starting with ‘Too many people’ the consequences of ‘Too many changes,’ ‘Too many newcomers’ and ‘Too many incentives’ leads to significant land clearing and loss of habitat and the infamous rewards offered for thylacine skins. Then in 1936 we learn that the thylacine is to be protected but it is ‘Too little’ and much ‘Too late’ as the last remaining thylacine dies.
This is a story simply told but with great emotional effect. One double page spread is an exception to the adverb ‘too’ where the new arrivals spy a land that is ‘So much space, so many animals, so many hunting grounds …. Yet it becomes a land where there are ‘too’ many of some things including animals like the thylacine that were considered a destructive threat to the colonial imposed lifestyle.
The artwork created by hand using repurposed cut-paper collage and pencil is clear and powerful and adds greatly to the story. The endpaper images of thylacines both complete and drafted form at the front and only drafted at the back are a powerful reminder of the fate of the Tasmanian tiger and the potential fate of other native animals.
Monica Reeve lives in the north-west Tasmania and is influenced in her art by the Tasmanian environment.
This database of Picture Books for Older Readers includes other titles about thylacines:
‘One Careless Night’ by Christina Booth
https://www.ncacl.org.au/pbor-database/one-careless-night/
‘The Dream of the Thylacine’ by Margaret Wild and Ron Brooks
https://www.ncacl.org.au/pbor-database/the-dream-of-the-thylacine/
Picture Books for Older Readers
