Nine-in-One, Grr! Grr!

The tiger climbs the mountain to ask Shao, the great god, how many cubs she will have. Nine each year, he tells her, and the bird overhearing it works out immediately what nine tigers a year would mean for everyone else on the mountain. So she teaches the tiger the song wrong. It is a trickster tale doing the work of an origin story, explaining why tigers are rare, and it lands with children every time because the bird wins by being clever rather than strong. Blia Xiong carried the story out of Laos, Cathy Spagnoli adapted it, and Nancy Hom illustrated it in flat brilliant color that nods to paj ntaub without copying it. This edition sets English alongside Hmong text in both White and Green, so it can be read aloud in either language at the same table. For picture-book readers and for anyone teaching folktales who is tired of the same four European ones.