An Elephant in the Garden in Crazy Challenge Connection

May 27, 2014 Book Concierge rated it it was amazing

Shelves: concierge, strong-women, world-war-ii, children-s-literature, library, war, nature, survival, animals, elephants

A frail and elderly Lizzie tells the story of her youth in Dresden Germany during World War II. Her father was fighting on the Russian front. Her mother was a zookeeper and fearing for the safety of the young elephant, she brought the animal home each night to their private garden. But the war is taking a toll on everyone and when the bombing begins on a snowy February night the family must flee the burning city. How can they possibly evade enemy troops with an elephant in tow?

What a wonderful a ...more

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May 31, 2012 mussolet rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-notmine-c, theme-war

I've come across Michael Morpurgo's book about a family fleeing Dresden in 1945 with an elephant in tow on a Goodreads list about elephants. And I've read it out of a special interest - because I actually am from Dresden and grew up in this town, listening to people telling their stories yabout what happened during the war.

I quite liked the storybuilding, and the setting with an old woman telling a young boy and his mother about her being a child and what had happened to her. I have to say thoug ...more

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Jul 15, 2013 Linda C rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, european, travel, historical-fiction

Lizzie, an 82 year old resident of a nursing home, is much taken with a 9 year old boy who visits the home with his Mother, a part time nurse there, when she has no place to leave when she works. The boy, Karl, reminds her of her younger brother Karli. She wants to tell him about the elephant that they had in their garden. Finally one day the boy and his mother stay after work to hear the woman’s story. Lizzie was 16 and her brother 9 when the story takes place in Dresden, Germany in 1945. Her m ...more

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Aug 20, 2014 Rusty rated it it was amazing

Shelves: children-ya

What a charming story although it is sad in so many ways. It is based on actual events. The reader gains insight into how the German people felt when the bombs of the Allies fell on them and their cities. The tenderness of this story helps us understand how cruel war can be as well as the people who promote and continue it to its end. The tale emphasizes how the innocents who wish just to live their lives suffer from its effects.

I fell in love with the family. Mutti is the mother who is a pacifi ...more

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