The Magician's Elephant by Kate DiCamillo

 


My third Kate DiCamillo book (the first two I read were Because of Winn-Dixie and The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane waaaay back when I was elementary school. This one was also great!

The Magician's Elephant is about Peter, an orphan living with an elderly soldier named Vilnia Lutz, finds out his little sister Adele is still alive after hearing it from a fortune teller. The fortune teller tells Peter that an elephant will lead him to his sister, but Peter doesn't know where to find this elephant. Meanwhile, Adele (yes, she's alive!), is living in an orphanage, and she keeps having dreams of an elephant visiting her.  At the same time, a magician is in the city and he performs a magic trick at one of his shows that goes wrong. Instead of summoning a bouquet of lilies, his accidentally summons an elephant. The elephant lands on a noblewoman named Madama LaVaughn, leaving her paralyzed. The magician is put in jail for destruction of property. The elephant is then taken in by Countess Quintet and is put on display for the city to look at. The elephant dreams of going back to her true home. Leo Matienne, a police officer, is the one who unites all the parties of people together.

This book gave me such a whimsical feeling while reading it! It is such a short book, but the whole thing packs such an emotional punch. I love seeing how even though everyone had their own individual goals, everyone came together at the end to help each other out. 

I gave it 4.5 stars, but that was just because of the language used to describe the character of Madame LaVaughn after she got paralyzed by the elephant. The author uses "crippled" and "wheelchair-bound" throughout the book. It's ableist language, but I think the author was probably using it because it's a historical fiction book, and that's the kind of language many people used back then. I highly doubt she is ableist herself. The good thing is, Madame LaVaughn accepts her disability at the end, and the ableist language is no longer used after that. 

I am planning on reading more of Kate DiCamillo's books! Have you read any of her books? Which is your favorite?

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