A Perfect Friend
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
A Moving Fable For Readers Of All Ages -- From National Book Critics Circle Award-Winning Author Reynolds Price
Ben Barks loved elephants long before he'd seen one. He sometimes wondered how that love started....
It's been a whole year since Ben's mother died, and nothing has soothed his broken heart -- except thinking about elephants, those magnificent creatures his mother loved too. Imagining their awesome grace always calms him in a way that his sad father and closest friends never can. When a one-ring circus comes to Ben's small town, he discovers Sala, an elephant who survived a wicked trainer's abuses. And soon, their powerful bond becomes a miraculous healer -- and gives Ben renewed hope for the future.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
HIn his first book for children, Price pens a slow, dreamy story of a boy wrestling with grief over his mother's death. Ben Barks, now 11, and his mother used to spend hours drawing elephants and reading about them. Ben still dreams of having an elephant of his own, a friend with whom he can share his deepest secrets, in the same way he confides in his dog Hilda, whose voice he sometimes hears in his thoughts. It's Hilda who tells him, "This thing that's coming will help your whole life"Dand she's right. When a small circus comes to town and Ben meets Sala, a lonely elephant who also knows tragedy, their encounter is both dangerous and magical, filling Ben with hope for the first time since his mother died. For all the boy-animal communication, the novel is driven more by its style than its plot. The languid pace may frustrate readers or leave some feeling strangely disconnected, and it's doubtful whether the target audience will linger over the poetic elisions. At the same time, however, the beauty of the language acts as lure (a house lit up at night looks like "an old-time ocean liner, afloat and steaming toward some destination that nobody knew"), and Ben is an exceedingly sympathetic character. For those up to the challenge, here is a sophisticated, haunting exploration of grief's flickering shadows, of friendship and love and of the elusive nature of happiness. Ages 9-12. FYI: The jacket illustration is by Maurice Sendak.
