The Magician's Elephant by Kate DiCamillo, Yoko Tanaka (Illustrator)

The Barnes & Noble Review

What kind of children’s book can make a grown man cry? This one.

When I asked what made my friend Matt cry, I was told by his wife, “Well, it was the part when…” No, not when, what? Why? Why this story? “Well it’s about forgiveness, it’s about redemption.” Wait a minute…I thought it was about hope. It is.

If there is a DiCamillo signature style it is that she trusts the reader to find the story, to make their own meaning. She came out of the gate a champion, garnering a Newbery Honor for her first book Because of Winn Dixie. The Tale of Despereaux won the Newbery Medal, the highest award in children’s fiction. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane was a National Book Award finalist and stirred up quite a controversy in children’s literature circles because of its main character, a self-centered china rabbit on a downward spiral.

Children do not need to be convinced of DiCamillo’s magic. Each book, from the slapstick humor of the toast-obsessed pig Mercy Watson to the painfully complicated lives of the early adolescents of Tiger Rising, casts a spell.

I have always felt that adults could, should, and would enjoy her novels for their lyrical language and for their multilayered texts. All of DiCamillo’s books tackle big themes -- love, friendship, loyalty, commitment, redemption and courage. I have pressed copies of Because of Winn Dixie into the hands of many adult friends and acquaintances. My husband once leaped from a restaurant in mid-meal to buy a copy from a nearby bookstore, convinced that our friend should not leave the table without it.

The Magician’s Elephant is most reminiscent of the timeless works of Hans Christian Andersen, set in an artfully familiar, vaguely European storybook village. In this “once-upon-a- time” land, there lives an orphaned boy, Peter Augustus Duchene, who resides with an old soldier in an attic room above the home of a childless policeman and his wife. There is a beggar with a blind dog, a nun who sits at the door of an orphanage, a girl who lives at the orphanage, and an imperious countess. There is also a magician who dreams of greatness, a stone carver, a noblewoman, and of course, the elephant from the title. With her economy of language and dry wit, DiCamillo seamlessly weaves these seemingly disparate denizens together to create her tale's tapestry.

Although the phrase “cognitive dissonance” would mean nothing to most ten-year-olds, there is no child who has not wrestled with the uncomfortable feeling caused by holding two contradictory ideas simultaneously. DiCamillo begins her tale with the protagonist in the throes of such agony. A fortune teller has told him that the infant sister he had thought was dead is alive.

If Peter Augustus Duchene believed that his sister Adele was alive then he had been lied to by his guardian, the soldier Vilna Lutz. But the honorable man who raised him must have been telling the truth. Yet, as he lay in bed that night, his thoughts chase each other:

He lies; she lies; he lies; she lies. Someone lies, I know not who. If she lies, I am a fool but if he lies, my sister is alive. His heart thumped. If he lies, then Adele lives. "I hope he lies." said Peter aloud to the darkness. And his heart, started at such treachery, astonished at the voicing aloud of such an unsoldierly sentiment, thumped again, much harder this time.

Across town, a “magician of advanced years and failing reputation performed the most astonishing magic of his career.” This mediocre performer astonishes himself as well as the audience when he conjures a living elephant that crashes through the ceiling of the opera house, crushing a noblewoman’s legs. “The magician stood next to the enormous beast and gloried in the smell of her -- dried apples, moldy paper, dung." Later, he repeatedly claims that he meant only to produce lilies.

The plot arises out of these interlocking mysteries with an effortless urgency -- will Peter find his sister? Will the magician be imprisoned forever? Will the elephant ever find her way home? As we anxiously witness the unfolding events, a refrain is heard from the young policeman. Leo Matienne asks repeatedly these unanswerable questions, “What if? Why not? Could it be?”

And here we are again with my friend Matt. The main theme of the book, implicit in Leo's poignant "Why not?," is hope -- hope in the face of all evidence to the contrary. Early on Peter decides that “that it is a terrible and complicated thing to hope, and that it might be easier, instead, to despair.” Yet in the fine tradition of the fairy tale, there are convenient coincidences and friends found in unlikely places that spark a bit of hope.

As in her prior works, DiCamillo does much more than spin a tale -- she begs us to not give up, to see beyond the fear and distress of the moment and to resist the temptation to throw up our hands ten minutes before the miracle happens. She shows that forgiveness comes when we to bravely own up to our very human failings, that we are trapped in our misery if we are like the magician who cannot admit that he really did want to perform an astounding feat.

DiCamillo’s prose remains masterfully evocative, painting such clear images in the mind that one would think illustrations superfluous. But Yoko Tamaka’s paintings accompanying the text accentuate the fairy-tale atmosphere, helping establish an otherworldly -- not now, not then -- dreamlike feeling. The pleasures of the book as a physical object, delightful to hold and behold, have not been scanted either. How wonderful it is in this age of digital delivery, to revel in the comfortingly old-fashioned typeface set on heavy stock.

Matt the grown-up reader was right. The Magician’s Elephant is a profound work of hope and redemption -- a story about regaining what was lost and about forgiveness. Children will enjoy a magical tale, and grown-ups will discover a spiritual one. They both will find exactly what they need. --Lisa Von Drasek

Lisa Von Drasek is the children's Librarian at the Bank Street College of Education. Her reviews and commentary have appeared in School Library Journal, The New York Times, Kirkus Reviews, The Bark, Knowledge Quest, Teaching K-8, Nick Jr., and more.

From Barnes & Noble

When a fortune teller sets up shop in the market square of Baltese, one earnest young man is among her first customers. Peter Augustus Duchene doesn't dawdle over his romantic future or his past lives; he wants to know whether his sister lives and, if so, if he can bring her to safety. The fortune teller's answers are puzzling. She assures him that an elephant will lead him to his beloved lost sibling, a promise that leaves him waiting for a solution that might not come. An absorbing story about hope and persistence by Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo.

From the Publisher

In a highly awaited new novel, Kate DiCamillo conjures a haunting fable about trusting the unexpected — and making the extraordinary come true.

What if? Why not? Could it be?

When a fortuneteller's tent appears in the market square of the city of Baltese, orphan Peter Augustus Duchene knows the questions that he needs to ask: Does his sister still live? And if so, how can he find her? The fortuneteller's mysterious answer (an elephant! An elephant will lead him there!) sets off a chain of events so remarkable, so impossible, that you will hardly dare to believe it’s true. With atmospheric illustrations by fine artist Yoko Tanaka, here is a dreamlike and captivating tale that could only be narrated by Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo. In this timeless fable, she evokes the largest of themes — hope and belonging, desire and compassion — with the lightness of a magician’s touch.

The Washington Post - Mary Quattlebaum

Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo tells a timeless tale as "strange and lovely and promising" as her title character. The occasional illustrations, too, are dreamlike and magical. In delicate shades of gray, Yoko Tanaka's acrylics convey the city's low wintry light and the mood of a place haunted by a recent, unnamed war. With its rhythmic sentences and fairy-tale tone, this novel yields solitary pleasures but begs to be read aloud. Hearing it in a shared space can connect us, one to one, regardless of age, much like the book's closing image: a small stone carving, hands linked, of the elephant's friends.

Publishers Weekly

In DiCamillo's fifth novel, a clairvoyant tells 10-year-old Peter, an orphan living with a brain-addled ex-soldier, that an elephant will lead him to his sister, who the ex-soldier claims died at birth. The fortuneteller's prediction seems cruelly preposterous as there are no pachyderms anywhere near Baltese, a vaguely eastern European city enduring a bitter winter. Then that night at the opera house, a magician “of advanced years and failing reputation” attempts to conjure a bouquet of lilies but instead produces an elephant that crashes through the ceiling. Peter learns that both magician and beast have been jailed, and upon first glimpse of the imprisoned elephant, Peter realizes that his fate and the elephant's are linked. The mannered prose and Tanaka's delicate, darkly hued paintings give the story a somber and old-fashioned feel. The absurdist elements—street vendors peddle chunks of the now-infamous opera house ceiling with the cry “Possess the plaster of disaster!”—leaven the overall seriousness, and there is a happy if predictable ending for the eccentric cast of anguished characters, each finding something to make them whole. Ages 8–13. (Sept.)

Children's Literature

From the author of The Tale of Despereaux comes this fantasy about a little ten-year old orphan named Peter Augustus Duchene. Peter lives with an old soldier named Vilna Lutz who trains Peter in military skills while simultaneously going crazy. Peter's life begins to change when he takes a risk. He spends the one coin Vilna Lutz gave him to spend at the market on a fortuneteller's reading. Peter longs to know about his family. Although his parents are deceased, the fortuneteller alerts him that his sister Adele lives. Peter has been told she was dead at birth. Peter is delighted and shocked and doubtful, particularly when the fortuneteller says Peter can find Adele by following the elephant. He says, "There are no elephants here," to which the teller responds, "That is surely the truth, at least for now. But perhaps you have noticed: the truth is forever changing." With that new understanding of life, Peter goes home. All is well for the people in Baltese—right up until a magician produces an elephant through the roof of the opera house when trying to create a bouquet! When this news reaches Peter, he journeys to find the elephant, which has been bought and housed by the Countess so she can return to the center of everyone's attention. Follow Peter as he seeks Adele. Discover the power of hope and imagination. Reviewer: K. Meghan Robertson

VOYA

I intended only lilies. In a small 1890-something European village, an anonymous traveling magician changes lives forever when a simple trick goes tragically wrong. Instead of lovely flowers, a full-grown elephant falls through the ceiling of the theater, landing on a woman and crushing her legs. At almost the same moment, young Peter hears from a fortuneteller that Adele, the sister he had been told was dead is actually alive and that an elephant would reunite them. DiCamillo entrances her audience with a group of quaint characters to accompany Peter and Adele on their journey back to one another—a crippled carver of gargoyles, an embittered soldier, a childless policeman and his wife, and a noblewoman who insists on housing the elephant in her ballroom. Each plays a valuable role in the others' lives as individual answers to the question, "What if?" become clear. Tanaka's pencil illustrations in shades of gray portray the characters as stiff and angular, almost marionette-like in appearance, they but are an oddly agreeable match for the fantastical events. Thoughtful readers will feel a quiet satisfaction with this almost dainty tale of impossible happenings. Reviewer: Pam Carlson

School Library Journal

Gr 4–6—On a perfectly ordinary day, Peter Augustus Duchene goes to the market square of the city of Baltese. Instead of buying the fish and bread that his guardian, Vilna Lutz, has asked him to procure, he uses the coin to pay a fortune-teller to get information about his sister, whom he believes to be dead. He is told that she is alive, and that an elephant will lead him to her. That very night at a performance in the town's opera house, a magician conjures up an elephant (by mistake) that crashes through the roof and cripples the society dame she happens to land on. The lives of the boy, his guardian, and the local policeman, along with the magician and his unfortunate victim, as well as a beggar, his dog, a sculptor, and a nun all intertwine in a series of events triggered by the appearance of the elephant. Miraculous events resolve not only the mystery of the whereabouts of Peter's sister, but also the deeper needs of all of the individuals involved. DiCamillo's carefully crafted prose creates an evocative aura of timelessness for a story that is, in fact, timeless. Tanaka's acrylic artwork is meticulous in detail and aptly matches the tone of the narrative. This is a book that demands to be read aloud.—Tim Wadham, St. Louis County Library, MO

Kirkus Reviews

Ten-year-old Peter Augustus Duchene goes to the market for fish and bread but spends it at the fortuneteller's tent instead. Seeking his long-lost sister, Peter is told, "You must follow the elephant. She will lead you there." And that very night at the Bliffenendorf Opera House, a magician's spell goes awry, conjuring an elephant that crashes through the ceiling and lands on Madam Bettine LaVaughn. Reading like a fable told long ago, with rich language that begs to be read aloud, this is a magical story about hope and love, loss and home, and of questioning the world versus accepting it as it is. Brilliant imagery juxtaposes "glowering and resentful" gargoyles and snow, stars and the glowing earth, and Tanaka's illustrations (not all seen) bring to life the city and characters from "the end of the century before last." A quieter volume than The Tale of Despereaux (2003) and The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane (2006), this has an equal power to haunt readers long past the final page. (Fantasy. 8-13)

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