Singing with Elephants by Margarita Engle

 

Brilliant, joyful, and deeply moving. Kirkus Star review

Publisher blurb: Cuban-born eleven-year-old Oriol lives in Santa Barbara, California, where she struggles to belong. But most of the time that’s okay, because she enjoys helping her parents care for the many injured animals at their veterinary clinic. Then Gabriela Mistral, the first Latin American winner of a Nobel Prize in Literature moves to town, and aspiring writer Oriol finds herself opening up. And when she discovers that someone is threatening the life of a baby elephant at her parents’ clinic, Oriol is determined to take action. As she begins to create a world of words for herself, Oriol learns it will take courage and strength to do what she thinks is right—even if it means keeping secrets from those she loves.

The baby elephant mentioned in this blurb is a twin. An unscrupulous actor who seeks fame at any cost takes one of the two-week-old baby elephants away from its mother. Oriol is determined to find the baby. She feels the grief of the mother and remaining twin very deeply. Once she finds little Song (his sister is Dance) Oriol then needs to spring into action. She organises a petition and with the help of Gabriela Mistral letters are written to other famous actors and to the Humane society. There must be a way to save this tiny elephant and stop the cruel intentions which would force her to perform in unnatural ways. 

Here are a few text quotes to give you a flavour of this verse novel:

My bird name
musical and sweet,
is one I chose 
for myself, long ago, in Cuba
when I knew who I was
and how 
to speak.

ELEPHANT ANATOMY

Standing in front of Chandra

I'm stunned into silence.

Tree-root feet.

Half-moon toenails.

Map-of-India ears.

Paintbrush tail.

A snake-shaped nose

with forty-thousand

muscles.

Her fifty pound heart pulses with love

for her soon-to-be newborn.

She's been pregnant for twenty-two months,

due any day.

She needs to eat three hundred pounds of hay

every twenty-four houses.

When she moves

she's as graceful

as a swaying

ocean wave.

MY FUTURE IS BLURRY (extract)

Gabriela Mistral is right-

I cannot predict the future,

but I can imagine a time

when wild animals

are no longer held captive

My words and actions

have shown me what

is possible.

Maybe the will change

the whole world

someday.

You can read more text extracts here.

Add this book to your list of verse novels to share with young readers aged 10+ up to age 13. 

The book is rich with simple yet profound expressions of love, loss, heartache, and wholeness. As we learn along with Oriol, poetry is the soul’s way of singing, whether that soul is human or animal. This lesson becomes more apparent as Oriol’s connection to the animals she cares for grows stronger and stronger, in particular her relationship with a pregnant elephant named Chandra whose rhythmic sways and sounds remind her of poetry. Good Reads with Ronna

I met Margarita Engle at a USBBY conference a few years ago so when I saw this verse novel in The Little Bookroom (Melbourne bookstore) I grabbed it.

Have you heard of Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957) - the first Latin winner of a Nobel Prize for Literature? I had not heard of her but there are details at the back of Singing with elephants along with one of her poems.

"I wanted to imagine how she might have influenced a child ... so I invented a Cuban immigrant girl who loves animals and nature as much as Mistral."

"She believed children deserved kindness, and her reforms of rural education became a model for all Latin America. At the same time she became a world-famous poet, and served as a diplomat, representing the government of Chile while living in various countries. .... (She) was an influential peace activist (and one) of the founders of the League of Nationals and later UNICEF."

Awards:

• Rhode Island 2024 Children's Book Award Nominee
• Bank Street 2023 Best Children's Books
• New York Times Best Children’s Books of 2022
• Kirkus Best Middle Grade Books 2022
• School Library Journal-26 MG Books for Latinx Heritage Month 2022
• Nerdies Award, 2022
• Cybils Award Finalist
• School Library Journal Mock Newbery Suggestions
• Kirkus Starred Review
• Junior Library Guild Selection
• New York Times review
• NPR Morning Edition interview
• Publishers Weekly starred review

Margarita Engle is the author of these (Summer Birds is a firm favourite of mine).

Jefferson by Jean-Claude Mourlevat illustrated by Antoine Ronzon translated by Ros Schwartz

Jefferson Ponsonby-Smythe is a dapper, modern (he has a mobile phone) hedgehog. He is looking forward to his visit to Cut n' Dye - his hairdresser. It is time to have his quiff trimmed. 

On the way into town, however, a speeding car almost knocks him over. The car is driven by a pair of shifty looking humans. What are they doing in Animal Kingdom when they clearly come from The Land of the Humans? This is the first in a series of events, none of which Jefferson or indeed you, the reader, could possibly anticipate.

"That was life: one minute you feel light, joyful and carefree and then, in a split second, everything changes. Happiness is so fragile, he said to himself, and tried to think about other things."

On arriving at Cut n' Dye, Jefferson makes a gruesome discovery. His hairdresser Mr Edgar, a badger, is on the floor of the salon, with a pair of scissors in his chest. He has been murdered. Jefferson reaches down to help his friend and at that very moment the only other customer wakes up from her doze under the hairdryer. It looks as though Jefferson himself is the murderer. He tries to explain but the nanny goat, Mrs Kristiansen, has run out into the street screaming. Jefferson reacts by running - running away as fast as he can. 

With the help of his best friend Gilbert, a young pig, the race is on to find the real culprit, to clear Jefferson's name and solve the mystery of those human drivers who almost knocked him over earlier in the day. Sophie, niece of the deceased hairdresser, gives Jefferson and Gilbert a odd postcard sent by her uncle Mr Edgar. It has been sent from Granville. Gilbert's cousin is a driver with Globetrotters. He tells Jefferson that they should join a tour to Granville in The Land of Humans so they can continue their investigation.

"You want us to conduct our investigations on a package tour? 'That's right! You go around in a herd, and no one pays any attention to you, you take as many photos as you please. It's ideal."

The tour leaves in three days. Jefferson stays in hiding, Gilbert packs their bags and the pair of friends set off to uncover the truth about the murder of Mr Edgar and along the way this very special pair of friends will also discover so much more about some truly big issues.

There are parts of this story that are laugh out loud funny; there are madcap chase scenes; heroic deeds; and really wonderful characters but I also need to explain that Chapter 11 is very disturbing which is why I think this book is really for mature readers aged 10 or 11+. In Chapter 11 Gilbert visits an abattoir and his descriptions of the animal cruelty are quite graphic. I imagine this chapter will raise a lot of important questions for young readers and adults too.

On a lighter note I especially loved all the tourists on the Globetrotters tour - animals of all shapes and sizes and with truly quirky personalities. There are also terrific black and white illustrations scattered throughout this book:

In this video the translator, Ros Schwartz, reads from the first chapter of Jefferson which was originally published in French with the same title - Jefferson.

In summary this is a book I loved, I raced through it desperate to solve the crime BUT this is not a book for every child. Many young readers will love this book but I do suggest you (the adult reader) should check it out first just to check it is a good fit for your child or class. 

Here are some reviews so you can read more plot details:

• Legenbooksdary
• Thenatashareads

Jean-Claude Mourlevat is the author of nearly thirty books and he has been nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award several times.