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School Library Journal
Reviewed on June 1, 2012 | Fiction
Gr 4-6–Ten-year-old Hastin lives in rural India in a thatched-roof mud hut with his widowed mother, Parvati, and younger sister, Chanda. When Chanda falls ill and is hospitalized in the city, Parvati must borrow money to pay for the expenses, and young Hastin determines to repay that loan by securing work as an elephant caretaker. His new employer, Timir, is a mean-tempered taskmaster who transports the boy to a distant jungle and orders him to catch...Log In or Sign Up to Read More
Horn Book Magazine
Reviewed on July 1, 2012
When ten-year-old Hastin first sees the elephant calf in the jungle, playfully tussling with another member of the herd, he names her Nandita, Hindi for "joyful," because she "always looks like she is smiling." Yet watching her is a bittersweet pleasure for Hastin, as his employer Timir, a northern India circus owner, has set a trap with the goal of catching an elephant -- Nandita, inevitably -- to train as a performer. First novelist Kelly crafts a layered, co...Log In or Sign Up to Read More
