Ratings Explanation

Violence: An elephant crashes through the ceiling of a theater and crushes the legs of a woman in the audience. She is crippled. This incident is mentioned several times throughout the book. A man falls from a tall building and hits the ground. His body is broken and bleeding. He survives, but his back heals bent and crooked and he walks hunched over for the rest of his life. A dog is hit by a blast from a cannon and is knocked on his head, permanently blinding him.
A boy thinks about his father lying in a field with a bayonet wound in his side, bleeding to death.

Adult Themes: A boy has been orphaned and lives with a man who is training him to be a soldier. The man makes the boy stand and march for a long time. The man tells the boy that all his family is dead and that his little sister was stillborn. A mother died during childbirth. A man is put in jail. We hear the elephant’s thoughts about wanting to die.

Synopsis

Young and orphaned, Peter visits a fortuneteller in the market who tells him if he wants to find his little sister he must “Follow the elephant. She will lead you there.” Peter has been told that his sister was stillborn, but having the fortuneteller say she’s still alive gives him hope, although the part about the elephant confuses him. There are no elephants near his small city of Baltese, until that evening when an elephant comes crashing through the ceiling of a local theater during a magician’s performance, sending the city into a flurry of excitement. Peter can’t wait to see the elephant and figure out how she can help him find his sister, Adele. The book follows Peter, the elephant, and many more characters that in the end are all connected.

 I sat down thinking I’d just start this book and about three hours later I finished. While it’s not a very fast-paced or action-packed story, it is quite interesting and I was excited to see how it ended — which is why I didn’t put it down for three hours! The plot held me captive and there were many engaging characters to meet that all have something to do with each other and come together in the end. And, of course, I love any story that has some element of magic.
The book is recommended for children as young as 8-years-old. I think the book is appropriate for that young, but I wonder a little if some children, who enjoy or are used to more action-filled books, would lose interest in this one due to it’s lack of fast-paced action. As an adult, however, I really enjoyed it and thought the themes of love, friendship and forgiveness were beautifully played throughout.