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Summary
Summary
Lizzie and Karl's mother is a zoo keeper; the family has become attached to an orphaned elephant named Marlene, who will be destroyed as a precautionary measure so she and the other animals don't run wild should the zoo be hit by bombs. The family persuades the zoo director to let Marlene stay in their garden instead. When the city is bombed, the family flees with thousands of others, but how can they walk the same route when they have an elephant in tow, and keep themselves safe? Along the way, they meet Peter, a Canadian navigator who risks his own capture to save the family.
As Michael Morpurgo writes in an author's note, An Elephant in the Garden is inspired by historical truths, and by his admiration for elephants, "the noblest and wisest and most sensitive of all creatures." Here is a story that brings together an unlikely group of survivors whose faith in kindness and love proves the best weapon of all.
Author Notes
British author Michael Morpurgo was born in St. Albans, Hertforshire in 1943. He attended the University of London and studied English and French. He became a primary school teacher in Kent for about ten years. He and his wife Clare started a charity called Farms for City Children. They currently own three farms where over 2000 children a year stay for a week and experience the countryside by taking part in purposeful farmwork.
He has published over 100 books and several screenplays. He won the 1995 Whitbread Children's Book Award for The Wreck of the Zanzibar, the 1996 Nestle Smarties Book Prize for The Butterfly Lion, and the 2000 Children's Book Award for Kensuke's Kingdom. Private Peaceful won the 2005 Red House Children's Book Award and the Blue Peter Book of the Year Award. Five of his books have been made into movies and two have been adapted for television. He was named as the third Children's Laureate in May 2003.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Frail and in a nursing home, Lizzie recalls when she was 15 and her family, including an elephant named Marlene, escaped the devastating 1945 bombing of Dresden (Germany). Readers are spellbound as Lizzie shares her riveting recollections of the sounds, smells, and feelings of war with her nurse and her nurse's son. (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Inspired by a true story about an elephant rescued from a Belfast zoo during WWII, acclaimed British author Morpurgo (War Horse) pens a historical novel about a German family's struggle to survive as their country is torn apart. The story within a story begins with Lizzie, an aging woman in a Canadian nursing home, telling her nurse and her nurse's nine-year-old son, Karl, that she had an elephant in her garden when she was a child. In 1945 Dresden, 16-year-old Lizzie's father is serving in the war, and her zookeeper mother decides to save an elephant named Marlene from the mercy killings exacted on other animals prior to the anticipated bombings. Marlene lives in their garden, walks on leashes, and stuns neighbors until the devastating bombing of Dresden forces Lizzie, her mother, and brother on an even more surprising journey across Germany seeking safety. Morpurgo crafts a thought-provoking and perilous encounter with an enemy combatant who joins their party and eventually forges a believable romance with Lizzie. The novel's clean prose delivers a gripping and unconventional perspective on the tumultuous era. Ages 10-14. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Lizzie, now an old woman, recounts how, on the eve of the 1945 Dresden bombing, an elephant protected her German family. After escaping the destroyed city, sixteen-year-old Lizzie, her brother and mother, and Peter, a Canadian RAF bomber, trek westward with elephant Marlene seeking refuge. Inspired by true events (conflated), Marlene's ability to aid the family throughout its journey is inspiring. (c) Copyright 2012. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Lizzie, a frail, aged nursing-home resident, relates to her nurse and the nurse's son her poignant World War II tale set in Dresden, Germany.Lizzie's mother is a zookeeper at the Dresden Zoo, where she cares for its very young elephant. After zoo officials decide that the animals must be shot if Dresden is bombed, she convinces them that the baby elephant could be safely cared for in her back garden. What she doesn't anticipate is the firestorm that results from extreme Allied bombing in February of 1945. Sixteen-year-old Lizzie, her younger brother Karli, her mother and the elephant begin, on foot, a mid-winter journey toward the safety of a relative's rural home, where they encounter Peter, a Canadian flyer downed in the bombing. Together, they flee toward American lines. Lizzie's somewhat stilted voice as she recollects the events from her childhood creates a distance in the narrative that diminishes its punch. Her tale is also periodicallyneedlesslyinterrupted, in a different type, as modern-day events intrude on her storytelling. While the present-day setting gives Morpurgo the opportunity to tie up loose ends, it ultimately distracts from the important, dismal reality of the war story and the plight of the refugees and animals.A moving but somewhat flawed tale of humanand animalcourage in the face of tragic suffering. (Historical fiction. 10-14)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Alternating narratives tell the story of a family's remarkable survival of the Allied bombing of Dresden in 1945. Lizzie's mother works at the Dresden Zoo, which plans to destroy its largest animals lest they escape during a bombing. Mutti rescues Marlene, an orphan elephant she raised from infancy. Marlene takes to her new family, particularly to Lizzie's little brother, Karli, and when the bombers arrive, Marlene accompanies them on their trek across Germany, away from the invading Russians and toward the advancing American army. Along the way, they meet a wounded Canadian soldier, who himself becomes an integral part of this makeshift family. Morpurgo frames the story with a contemporary perspective. Lizzie, now an elderly woman in a nursing home, tells her tale to the young son of a nurse who reminds her of her own young brother. The occasional interruptions to the story build suspense and add a layer of resonance to Morpurgo's poignant and thoughtful exploration of the terrible impact of war on both sides of the fighting.--Barthelmess, Thom Copyright 2010 Booklist
