The Magician’s Elephant by Kate DiCamillo
Every so often a book falls into my lap that is so magical that I can’t believe I’ve never read it before. (Which you might agree is a funny statement once you read the book.)
That’s what happened with The Magician’s Elephant by Kate DiCamillo.
About the Book
Title: The Magician’s Elephant
Author: Kate DiCamillo
Publisher: Candlewick; First Edition
ISBN-10: 1406324477
ISBN-13: 978-0763644109
Available at amazon.com.
It was published in 2009, and I’m just getting to it now.
Story of my life.
DiCamillo is a prolific writer of picture books, chapter books, middle grade fiction, and young adult fiction.
Of course, she’s brilliant.
Her writing is like an arrow, piercing the veil of life, truth and lies, but beautifully and with hope.
You might know her from Because of Winn Dixie, Tiger Rising, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, The Tale of Despereaux and the delightful Mercy Watson series.
DiCamillo is so good that whenever I read one of her books, I wonder why I haven’t read them all.
The Magician’s Elephant spoke to me.
And what it said to me was, “There really is magic in the world if you care to see it.”
The whole story had this atmospheric dreaminess, like a spell, as it led young Peter Augustus Duchenne from his guardian’s meager rooms to a fortune teller’s tent where he spent the money meant to go toward provisions then into a misty night to a police officer’s warm and cozy apartment to a countess’s ritzy home to a jail cell and back out to a snowy night.
Some of this was accomplished with the magician’s elephant in tow.
All of it was to find the sister he believed was still alive, though his guardian had led him to believe otherwise.
I liked that the main character was a sympathetic boy who didn’t want to participate in soldier-training.
I liked that the magician was tired of doing cheap tricks and wanted to perform real magic, but messed up and caused an elephant to appear instead of a bouquet of lilies.
I liked how real the elephant seemed to me.
This is a short read, an ethereal journey, a beautiful “lesson.”
It was a fairytale without fairies.
And, lucky us, DiCamillo has a new book coming out in October, The Puppets of Spelhorst.
I can’t wait.
Have a lovely week.
Until next time,
~ Gail
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Thanks for sharing your review. I just bought the book. Can’t wait to read it!
Hi Sherry! Hope you like it as much as I did. And your book is out tomorrow. I can’t wait to read that!