Trans-species Empathy in Mitali Perkins’ Tiger Boy: Animal Ethics and Compassion in Children’s Literature

Trans-species empathy disrupts the traditional human-centered perspectives and represents an expansion of compassion for non-human animals. This paper reads Mitali Perkins’ Tiger Boy (2015) as a narrative of trans-species empathy that enhances the symbiotic significance and consciousness among readers. The study employs Suzanne Keen’s concept of strategic empathy to show how children’s literature uses narrative empathy to transform the outlook of young readers towards animal protection. This paper argues that empathetic responses towards animals can be fostered through fiction and help establish human, animal, and nature relationships as embodied experiences.