bookshelves: childrens-picture-books
Beautifully illustrated in whites, blues, and black. ]]>
bookshelves: childrens-literature, mock-newbery-2010
This is an almost book. It is almost a great story, but somehow the elements just didn't together. At times the fairy tale aspect becomes transparent and reveals the glaring morality tale underneath. Details intended to give enough reality to make the story plausible instead raise questions that illuminate its implausibility. The only well developed character is the elephant while all the human characters remain flat.
The entire plot hinges on this idea: "And everyone, each person, had hopes and dreams, wishes for revenge, and desires for love. / They stood together. / They waited. / And secretly, deep within their hearts, even though they knew it could not truly be so, they each expected that the mere sight of the elephant would somehow deliver them, would make their wishes and hopes and desires come true" (p. 113 -- 114).
The Magician's Elephant still is a slow gentle story. The illustrations are beautiful. The language is poetic. It is like a dream told in monotone. There's no swearing and no violence (except for the elephant crashing through the opera house's roof and the hunchback becoming a hunchback by falling off the cathedral). The nuns at the orphanage aren't mean. It's a lovely story with a happy ending but nothing more complex than that. ]]>
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bookshelves: childrens-literature, to-read
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bookshelves: to-read
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bookshelves: childrens-picture-books
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bookshelves: childrens-picture-books
This is a perfect Christmas gift for the children on your list especially if they're nieces, nephews, and grandchildren who can go home and yell "chicken butt" to their hearts' content without you having to hear it. ]]>