The Child's Elephant

As an avid reader, I am always excited to come across a good new book.  Now, imagine how happy I am to find a book about elephants!  I am thrilled! The Child's Elephant by Rachel Campbell-Johnston is about  a boy who adopts an orphaned elephant calf, who lost it's mother due to poaching.   

Thank you to The Guardian for reviewing this must-read! 

It is safe to assume that Rachel Campbell-Johnston loves poetry. Given that she has a PhD in the stuff and a job as a poetry and art critic for the Times, it is hardly surprising that her first novel for children, set in the African savannah, captures the rhyme and rhythm of life there. Packed with exquisite imagery, where night skies weep shooting stars and flamingo flocks scatter "like wisps of sunset", The Child's Elephant is a hard-hitting but lyrical tale of survival against the odds.

We start with a bang – quite literally. A gunshot is fired and Bat, a young herdsboy, stumbles upon some poachers who have killed an elephant for its tusks. Horrified by the sight of the dead animal rising "like a mountain from a lake of purplish blood", Bat vows to look after the elephant's orphan, a pitiful creature flailing about in the bushes. With the help of his feisty friend, Muka, Bat half-walks, half-drags the young elephant back to his village of Jambula, where it takes up residence in his grandmother's hut. Christened Meya by the village's toothless chief because "it is the name that we give to those we most love", the elephant becomes a village favourite.

After an explosive start, the novel simmers down to focus on day-to-day life. Though the writing is always superb, the story sometimes drags under the weight of so much poetic description. I enjoyed it, basking in the slow, heavy style like a lion in the heat of the African sun, but I suspect others might lose patience. Lengthy passages detailing the sights, smells and sounds of the savannah will leave some children desperate for a bit of dialogue or action to speed up the narrative.

But hang in there, because a storm cloud is brewing. The first rumblings of danger – rumours of a rebel force abducting children to fight as soldiers – rouse the villagers' concern and the readers' interest. Strange voices are heard. A cow is stolen. A child goes missing. "They are coming closer," a neighbour whispers. "And they say that there's nothing the government can do about it." The growing unease is well handled, the shift in mood subtle but sinister. Well captured, too, is Bat and Muka's heartbreak at having to say goodbye to their elephant when she is ready to be released into the wild.

The two children are kidnapped and taken hundreds of miles to a training camp, based loosely on those of The Lord's Resistance Army in Northern Uganda, where Campbell-Johnston spent some time interviewing former child soldiers. She puts the research to good use. The camp has more than an air of authenticity; it reeks of it, and the cruelty is all the more powerful and shocking for that. Needing cash for supplies, the camp leaders recruit Bat to hunt down elephants for poachers to cut off their tusks. If he disobeys, he will be killed, and our hero is faced with the impossible decision to save himself or the majestic animals that he has come to love.

The Child's Elephant has the feel of a great epic. Not just a tale of two children fighting to survive, this is a big and important story about war, love, loss and the enduring power of friendship in the most brutal of circumstances. The slow-burn plot may not suit some readers, but those who persevere will be rewarded with a novel that smoulders in the mind long after the final page.

~Annabel Pitcher

The Guardian

July 5, 2013

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