The Tiger Montage, by John J Heartfield, Germany 1931
Once there was a little girl called Sophie
and she was having tea with her mummy in the kitchen.
Suddenly there was a ring at the door.
Sophie’s mummy said, ‘I wonder who that can be?
It can’t be the milkman because he came this morning.
And it can’t be the boy from the grocer
because this isn’t the day he comes.
And it can’t be Daddy because he’s got his key.
And it can’t be that scary old tiger
because he was put in a cage a long time ago,
and when he died
he was stuffed and put in a museum.
We’d better open the door and see.’
Sophie opened the door
and there was a big, orange, stripy tiger.
‘You’re supposed to be dead,’ said Sophie.
The tiger smiled and licked his lips.
He looked very hungry.
Sophie tried to close the door,
but the tiger ran into the house.
Sophie’s mummy said, ‘would you like a sandwich?’
The tiger licked his lips and smiled.
But he didn’t just take one sandwich.
He took all the sandwiches on the plate
and swallowed them in one big mouth full.
Owp!
The tiger still looked hungry, so Sophie passed him the buns.
But the tiger didn’t eat just one bun.
He ate all the buns on the dish.
And then he ate all the biscuits and all the cake,
until there was nothing left on the table.
Then the tiger ate Sophie’s mummy.
First, he bit her in the throat.
Then he chewed her face.
There was a lot of blood.
But Sophie’s mummy soon stopped screaming.
Owp!
Sophie hid under the table.
The tiger looked round the kitchen
to see what else he could find to eat.
He ate all the supper that was cooking in the saucepans
and all the food in the fridge
and all the packets and tins in the cupboard
and he drank all the milk,
and all the orange juice,
and all daddy’s beer,
and all the water in the tap.
Owp!
Just then Sophie’s daddy came home.
The tiger bit him in the neck
with his sharp teeth.
There was a lot of blood.
Owp!
Sophie ran upstairs and hid in the wardrobe.
When the tiger had finished eating daddy,
he followed Sophie up the stairs.
The tiger went into the bathroom.
He ate all the soap
and he drank all the water in the bath.
He went into Sophie’s mummy and daddy’s bedroom.
He tore the curtains
and he slashed the pillows with his sharp claws.
Then he came into Sophie’s room.
Sophie held her breath.
She could hear the tiger slowly padding round the bed.
He looked under the bed.
He looked behind the curtains.
Then he opened the wardrobe.
Sophie screamed.
First the tiger ate Sophie’s head.
Then he ate her arms and her legs and her tummy.
Soon there was nothing left of Sophie
except some little white bones.
The next day the tiger ate the milkman.
Owp!
And the boy from the grocer.
Owp!
And then he went out in the dark.
All the street lamps were lit,
and all the cars had their lights on.
The tiger smiled and licked his lips.
He was still hungry.
Tigers are always hungry.
Image by Martin Gollan
This poem is based on Judith Kerr’s classic children’s story The Tiger Who Came for Tea. Michael Rosen has suggested that the original story was a parable about the accession of the Nazis to power – Judith Kerr’s father was a prominent theatre critic and the family had to flee Germany in 1933; Kerr’s books were publicly burned later that year.  Â
