Saber-Tooth
A Novel in Verse
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected Jan 27, 2026
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
From Robin Gow, the award-winning author of Dear Mothman, comes a gripping middle-grade novel in verse about a boy who digs up and loses control of a saber-toothed tiger.
***STARRED REVIEW*** “Deeply cathartic; balances emotional depth with engrossing suspense.” ―Kirkus Reviews
***STARRED REVIEW*** “A heartening, deeply felt work.” ―Publishers Weekly
***STARRED REVIEW*** “Using a fascinating mixture of metaphor and reality, this verse novel explores the explosive nature of anger and the pain it can cause when left untended.” ―The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
Jasper’s favorite person is his older brother, Callan. They go on fossil-finding missions and stay up late while their parents work nights. Callan even helped Jasper pick out his new name when he came out as trans.
But Callan starts to grow distant and leaves for college without taking Jasper on a promised fossil dig. Jasper feels abandoned—and angry. Who needs Callan? He will dig by himself, in his backyard. As he digs, he hears a voice: the bones of a saber-toothed tiger. He’s buried deep, and he wants Jasper to DIG.
Jasper is sure a discovery like this could change the world, or at least get Callan to text him back. But as the saber-toothed tiger finds freedom, Jasper realizes he may have unleashed a monster that no one was ready for, and that anger can empower you—or destroy you.
Also by Robin Gow
• Dear Mothman
• Gooseberry
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Complex ruminations on gender identity, loneliness, and neurodiversity accompany layered interpretations of grief and anger in this eloquent verse novel. All summer long, autistic and transgender incoming eighth grader Jasper Amato's older brother Callan has been promising that they would go fossil hunting together around their rural Pennsylvania home. The two are close: Callan, Jasper's only friend, even helped him choose a name when Jasper came out a year ago. But when summer ends and Callan prepares to leave for college, Jasper purposefully breaks his brother's laptop. As eighth grade begins, the youth feels as if his "heart is full/ of magma bubbling/ and then cooling." Contending with a deep sense of spite and abandonment ("Why does something so happy for / have to feel so terrible/ for me?"), Jasper begins his own backyard dig; he's soon terrified when he hears a voice from underground: "Here, I am here." The buried entity claims to be a saber-toothed tiger who pleads for Jasper to unearth them. When Jasper succeeds, however, he realizes that the mysterious being is something far more frightening than the saber-toothed tigers on the posters that adorn his bedroom wall. Utilizing spare and stirring free verse, Gow (Gooseberry) artfully explores the sometimes turbulent emotions that come with growing up and growing apart, culminating in a heartening, deeply felt work. The Amatos cue as white. Ages 10–14.
