![The Magician's Elephant](/assets/artwork/1x1-42817eea7ade52607a760cbee00d1495.gif)
![The Magician's Elephant](/assets/artwork/1x1-42817eea7ade52607a760cbee00d1495.gif)
![](/assets/artwork/1x1-42817eea7ade52607a760cbee00d1495.gif)
![](/assets/artwork/1x1-42817eea7ade52607a760cbee00d1495.gif)
The Magician's Elephant
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4.3 • 11 Ratings
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- £3.99
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- £3.99
Publisher Description
What if? Why not? Could it be? When a fortune teller's tent appears in the market square of the city of Baltese, orphan Peter Augustus Duchenne knows the questions that he needs to ask: Does his sister still live? And if so, how can he find her? The fortune teller's mysterious answer (an elephant! An elephant will lead you there!) sets off a chain of events so remarkable, so impossible, that you will hardly dare to believe it’s true. With atmospheric illustrations by fine artist Yoko Tanaka, here is a dreamlike and captivating tale that could only be told by Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo. In this timeless fable, she evokes the largest of themes – hope and belonging, desire and compassion – with the lightness of a magician’s touch.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In DiCamillo's fifth novel, a clairvoyant tells 10-year-old Peter, an orphan living with a brain-addled ex-soldier, that an elephant will lead him to his sister, who the ex-soldier claims died at birth. The fortuneteller's prediction seems cruelly preposterous as there are no pachyderms anywhere near Baltese, a vaguely eastern European city enduring a bitter winter. Then that night at the opera house, a magician "of advanced years and failing reputation" attempts to conjure a bouquet of lilies but instead produces an elephant that crashes through the ceiling. Peter learns that both magician and beast have been jailed, and upon first glimpse of the imprisoned elephant, Peter realizes that his fate and the elephant's are linked. The mannered prose and Tanaka's delicate, darkly hued paintings give the story a somber and old-fashioned feel. The absurdist elements street vendors peddle chunks of the now-infamous opera house ceiling with the cry "Possess the plaster of disaster!" leaven the overall seriousness, and there is a happy if predictable ending for the eccentric cast of anguished characters, each finding something to make them whole. Ages 8 13.
Customer Reviews
The Magicians Elephant
In this spectacular story there is a boy. Who lost his parents when he was young. So now he is a servant in the military. He had always wanted to be part of the military. The general gives the boy some money to get some bread and fish. But when he is at the supermarket he sees a fortune teller's tent and he doesn't know what he should do, the general would be furious if he spent it on the fortune teller. READ MORE TO FIND OUT WHAT HE DOES!!