Sal's dad has left. Mum, in her grief, is now focused on the moon and not her family. Roy, the younger brother, is sure the end of the world is coming very soon and so he has been preparing his survival gear. Sal has one main friend but he is a bird - a Kakapo named Hector. He just arrived in her room one day and somehow Sal can understand and speak to him - it's a mysterious gift. Then added to all of this now an elephant has arrived. A real elephant. She is huge and totally out of place in this small town.
"She was a she, and probably around sixteen years old. Surprisingly, though, other than that, the 'experts' had little to add. Her arrival in Larry had them all completely flummoxed. This was not the type of elephant found in circuses or zoos ... These elephants were only found in the most remote and inaccessible jungles of the Congo Basin in central Africa."
The kids really want to rescue the elephant. Roy knows there is one large space in town where they could 'hide' her. It belongs to the post office and it is where the postman named Mr Longbottom lives. There are problems with this idea. Mr Longbottom is a thief, and he hates children but all the adults in the town like and respect him. Also how do they keep the elephant calm? It turns out she likes the same music as Sal's friend Bartholomew. Music like Nina Simone and also all kinds of jazz and this is the music Bartholomew plays everywhere on his boombox. But then the people of the town discover the elephant and Larry is a town that has always been down on its luck. Everyone can see ways to make money out of the elephant but Sal and her friends know all of these ideas are cruel. The time has come to rescue the elephant and take her somewhere safe - but how do they do this? Where can they take her? And what if they get caught?
"Sal cursed herself, too. For breaking into the warehouse in the first place and dragging everyone into all of this. For letting Bartholomew drive without a license. And Roy ... So much for looking after her little brother. In the back of a police car, aged eight-and-a-half? It would be hard to classify that as good care in anyone's book. ... She had failed, all right."
"Bartholomew ... He was probably in the most trouble. After all, he was the one at the wheel. He was the oldest. He was meant to be responsible. While he might have been trying to save the elephant, in doing so he'd endangered all their lives. ... But spending time with the elephant, seeing her love of music. He didn't need a book to know she felt the same things in her heart that he did."
About three quarters of the way through this book I realised I had not discovered any references to the book title. I need to tell you - don't skip ahead - this discovery does not come until the final chapter. It is a neat way of tying up the threads of the story and adding to the happy ending.
Click on these review comments for more plot details:
I picked up The What on Earth Institue in a bookshop because I recognised the name Lisa Nicol. The What on Earth Institute of Wonder was published in 2021. I wonder how I missed it and I am surprised it did not make the 2022 CBCA Book of the Year Younger Readers Notables list. I read this on the shelf talker label in Gleebooks:
I could not love this book any more! @lisanicolauthor has once again blown our minds with a story so fabulously bonkers and so beautifully written that I had to just lie in a dark room for a good while and appreciate what I had just read…. definitely in the running for one of my favourite books of the year! Rachel Robson Gleebooks
I loved her previous book:
Companion books:
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