Summary

Chapter 1 of When You Trap A Tiger introduces the reader to the protagonist and narrator, Lily Reeves. She is in a car with her mother and older sister, Sam, who is a sulky teenager and not enjoying their hours-long drive to Sunbeam, Washington, from their home in California. The trio are on their way to move in with Halmoni, which is the Korean word for their maternal ‘grandmother,’ and Sam is particularly mad that their mother gave them nearly no warning of the move. Their father died years ago, when Lily was too young to remember, in a car accident in bad weather, and now all three are tense given the rain pounding on their windshield. In the middle of the road, Lily sees a tiger appear suddenly but no one else seems to notice. She makes a mental note to ask Halmoni...