A review by stitchesnpages
Magicians Elephant by Kate DiCamillo

3.0

Format: Print 

I picked this up in 2021 when I went to an RSC production of it with a friend for my birthday. Looking for a short and relatively easy read while getting over covid, I finally picked it up at the start of the year. 

This is a very clever book that really makes you believe that the unimaginable can happen, and if I’d read it when I was the age it’s intended for, I think it would have been a firm favourite. It is perhaps a bit dark in places and while I liked the addition of the illustrations, they were quite gloomy. Nonetheless, I thought the characters had great depth (although I wish we’d gotten more on the elephant – this shone through in the stage production but the book focused more heavily on the people) and there were some strong messages of love and hope through adversity. It gave me exactly what I needed at the time but for me it didn’t live up to the stage show and at times I found it a bit repetitive. Overall, a short and engaging read but one I probably wouldn’t return to myself unless I was reading it with children in the future.