The Magician’s Elephant by Kate Di Camillo, illustrated by Yoko Tanaka, Candlewick Press, 2009
Well, she’s done it again! The Magician’s Elephant is another masterpiece by the talented Kate DiCamillo (Because of Winn Dixie, The Tale of Despereaux, Mercy Watson books).
“At the end of the century before last,” a boy named Peter is sent to the market by his guardian, an old, somewhat senile soldier, to buy food. The lure of the new fortuneteller tent is too much as he has had a question on his mind for a long time. When she tells him to find what he is looking for by following the elephant, it seems preposterous. And yet, not impossible at the same time.
Full of delightful surprise and suspense, characters from another time and place that are so real and familiar, and writing that never talks down but instead reaches up to children. From Chapter One:
That day in the market square, in the
midst of the entirely unremarkable and
absolutely ordinary stalls of the fishmongers
and cloth merchants and bakers and silversmiths,
there had appeared, without warning
or fanfare, the red tent of a fortuneteller.
Attached to the fortuneteller’s tent was a
piece of paper, and penned upon the paper in
a cramped and unapologetic hand were these
words: The most profound and difficult questions
that could possibly be posed by the human mind or
heart will be answered within for the price of one
florit.
Peter read the small sign once, and then
again. The audacity of the words, their dizzying
promise, made it difficult, suddenly, for him
to breathe. He looked down at the coin, the
single florit, in his hand.
Will he or won’t he? What is possible and what is believable? The well-developed cast of main characters have essentially one thing in common, they long for a better, but improbable life–an elephant, a magician, an orphan, a crippled cathedral sculptor, a policeman with a tender heart, the nun/gatekeeper of the orphanage door, Peter, and more. Their stories intertwine in fascinating ways, and they all come to believe in the possibilities of life. Kate DiCamillo says that the story is about hope, redemption, faith, love, and it made her believe in happy endings.
The Magician’s Elephant is a treasure that will be enjoyed for generations to come.
