The Elephant in the Room
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- 5,99 €
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- 5,99 €
Descrizione dell’editore
It's been almost a year since Sila's mum travelled halfway around the world to Turkey, hoping to secure the immigration paperwork that would allow her to return to her family in the United States.
The long separation is almost impossible for Sila to bear. But things change when Sila accompanies her father (who is a mechanic) outside their Oregon town to fix a truck. There, behind an enormous stone wall, she meets a grandfatherly man who only months before won the state lottery. Their new alliance leads to the rescue of a circus elephant named Veda, and then to a friendship with a unique boy named Mateo, proving that comfort and hope come in the most unlikely of places.
A moving story of family separation and the importance of the connection between animals and humans, this novel has the enormous heart and uplifting humour that readers have come to expect from the beloved author of Counting by 7s.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Book and animal lover Sila Tekin finds hope, joy, and friendship when Veda, a traumatized circus elephant, enters her life. After an immigration issue arises for the sixth grader's mother, her planned eight-day trip from Oregon to Turkey becomes an eight-month separation for the family. Sila misses her mother desperately, withdrawing at school and with her Kurdish father, a mechanic who moved to America to seek political asylum. When Sila accompanies her father to work one day, she befriends Gio Gardino, an elderly widower and lottery winner who purchases Veda from a defunct circus troupe that passes through their town. With the help of new friend Mateo Lopez, an autistic Mexican American classmate, Sila cares for Veda and fights to reunite her with her mother; the girl also begins to come out of her shell and feel hope again. Though the final chapters rush to an implausibly tidy end, Sloan (To Night Owl from Dogfish) fully builds the emotional interiors of each character, including Veda. This heartfelt tale thoughtfully conveys the agony of family separation, the beauty of nature, and the power of friendship to overcome tremendous difficulties. Ages 10–up.
