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3.96 AVERAGE
3.96 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
It’s 1945. Elizabeth's father is fighting with the German army on the eastern front. Her mother works at Dresden zoo, where her favourite animal is a young elephant named Marlene. When the zoo director tells her the dangerous animals must be shot to prevent them running amok when the town is bombed, Elizabeth's mother moves Marlene into the back garden to save her… and then the bombs start to fall.
Their home destroyed, Elizabeth and her family must flee the bombed-out city and through the wintery landscape, all the while avoiding the Russian troops who are drawing ever closer. It would be hard enough, without an elephant in tow…
This is a story of heartache, resilience, and most importantly, forgiveness, and hope. The beautiful and thoughtful addition of an elephant to a family escaping atrocities of war makes this book perfect for middle grades.
It meets each student at his/her maturity level, and allows for differentiated classroom discussion and research for prompts, such as:
• the political reasons leading to WWII
• the division of families over the war
• the lives and struggles of Germans who survived WWII
• the allied and axis powers
“I think it’s true what she told me about the elephant. She’s not fibbing, she’s not making it up, I know she isn’t. I can tell.
Because I tell fibs sometimes, so I can always tell when someone else is, and she’s not. And she’s not muddled either, like Gran is. If she says she had an elephant in her garden, then she did.” -Karl
Content Warnings
Graphic: War
Minor: Death
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
A quick read with my children. The book is inspired by true events (two separate events). The book is thought provoking: what challenges would a family face who had been displaced from their home by allied forces in WWII. War is complicated and in the end everyone loses.
fast-paced
Michael Morpurgo is a great writer. A very well told story.
Another excellent novel from Morpurgo. Michael has a way of delivering difficult situations in very bearable human ways. Although Marlene the elephant is the featured character as such it is the people and their acts of kindness when surrounded by hostile situations that warms the heart.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
خیلی دوست داشتم داستان رو، هرچند مثل باقی کتابهایی که توی نمایشگاه خوندم نبود و نیاز به دقت بیشتر روی جملهها داشت اما داستان خیلی جالب و به یاد موندنی بود. راضیم.
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated