I think magical realism is one of the toughest genres to write well, because there’s always the risk that instead of seeing magic, a reader will see something else– hallucinations? Inconsistent plot or world?

Lex has a special relationship with the elephant Nyah, who protected her after the tornado left her at the zoo. Nyah sends her messages– pictures in her mind– and Lex tries to send pictures back.

Ever since the tornado, Lex has been able to hear the wind speaking to her, too. This was the most difficult element in the story for me to get into. I liked that it gave voice to Lex’s fears, making them a sort of personified antagonist. I wondered if it diluted the power of Nyah being able to speak to her, though.

I loved Lex’s relationship with Roger and her best friend, Fisher– all of her zoo family, really, but especially those two. As Lex tries to help Nyah find her family, it makes her examine her feelings about living with Roger at the zoo, too. He’s patient and clearly loves her, though he never pushes her to accept him as family. She also learns a lot through her friendship with Fisher, who is really different than she is. He’s outgoing and loves baseball. She learns how to be a good friend to him even when it means stepping out of her comfort zone or doing things for him.

On the whole, I thought this book was a really sweet story about found families. I liked the characters and the relationships between them. If you liked FLORA & ULYSSES by Kate DiCamillo, you’ll want to check out THE ELEPHANT’S GIRL.

My Thoughts
I absolutely fell in love with this book! Here are my pros and cons for The Elephant’s Girl:

Pros
1. I am such a fan of middle grade fiction. I have many favorites and this book has joined my favorites list easily. This story is a perfectly balanced mix of magical realism, mystery, adventure, ghost story, family drama, and friendship… and it takes place in a zoo! How cool is that?
2. The story actually includes many contemporary topics that are great for children to read and learn about. These include atypical family units, animal rights, bullying, empathy, and cultural differences.
3. The elephants! I adored Nyah and really enjoyed the relationship between Nyah and Lex. If you weren’t an elephant fan before, you will be after reading this book!
4. I loved the wind imagery used in this story! It ranges from breezes that speak to Lexington all the way to tornados that wreak havoc. Ultimately, I think the message from the wind imagery is that we will always battle storms in our lives, but what we learn from those storms and how we move on is what is important.
5. So much emotion! The relationships between Lex and everyone she knows were so special, but I particularly loved her relationship with her guardian Roger and her best friend Fisher. You will feel the affection, respect, and love as you read the story.
6. The ghost element was interesting and incorporated into the story very organically. The ghost is not scary, but instead very helpful to Lex in many ways.
7. I even enjoyed the adventure and mystery that the kids found themselves in!
8. The story is beautifully written and it ends in an uplifting, heartwarming manner.
9. Read that Author’s Note at the end! She discusses things she has learned about elephant communication using infrasonic sound – yes, it is a real thing! She also talks about people, organizations, and parks that help exploited elephants and encourage conservation efforts. Links to these organizations are included, as well as a recommended reading list, if you are interested in learning more about elephants.

Cons
None.

Summary
Ultimately, this is a story about the power of friendship and love. It is about the positive connections we can develop with other humans and animals.

I’d definitely recommend this book to middle grade readers, but I also think it would appeal to many adults as well. I certainly loved it!

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Children’s/Crown Books for Young Readers for a free eARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

I wanted to love this book more than I unfortunately did. I loved the concept of it and I was intrigued by the synopsis of the book, but it just didn’t do it for me. I couldn’t get into much of the magical realism aspects of the book. Some parts of the book were ok, but other parts I found myself wanting to hurry through. Overall, it was just a meh book for me.

The best way to survive a tornado? In the Elephant’s Girl by Celesta Rimington, Lexington knows how to endure a storm better than most. If only she could feel as confident on the calm weather days when she ventures away from her home base, the zoo. She rarely leaves the zoo due to her special connection to one of the zoo’s elephants and close relationships with the zoo staff. Rimington portrays Lex’s ache to have a family of her own, the impressive loyalty of her friendship with Fisher, and her strong desire to find confidence to overcome her anxiety. Any reader will root along with Lex for the adults in her life to honest and make morally just decisions. This mystical adventure will satisfy readers who love animals, baseball, trains, storms, geography, restoration of antiques, and wandering spirits!

After reading a description of Pine Manor’s Plotting your Novel class instructed by Brandom Kiely, I was inspired to map out Lex’s motivations and how Remington raises the stakes as she moves the plot from one chapter to the next. Writers of middle grade will appreciate Rimington’s ability to raise the stakes chapter after chapter, weave enthralling backstories for main and side characters, and connect their conflicts masterfully. The use of personification of weather and description of visual communication will inspire writers to create unusual characters and rethink which character should reveal information! The use of setting as a boundary for safety plays an important role in this novel and the impact of this boundary shifting over the course of the story mirrors Lex’s growth as a character. This idea of tying setting to conflict is definitely a writing move I want to try as I revise my own MG WIP!

All in all, I highly recommend The Elephant’s Girl to readers who love treasure hunts, stories of friendship (whether between people or people and animals), and stories of finding where you belong!

My daughter loved this sweet story! She felt particularly special to have a chance to read an ARC before all of her friends (and she guessed right when her school librarian would have previewed it too.) As a fan of Applegate and DeCamilo I knew she would find a lot of heart and soul in The Elephant's Girl. Here are her words: "This book is now one of my new favorites! I think kids who love books about animals, weather, and baseball will love it too. I love to draw and the cover illustration is so cool, see the tornado? There's so much I want to say but it will be a spoiler so I'll let you decide how amazing this book is by reading it for yourself! I give it all the stars!"
Thanks to @netgalley for the copy in exchange for my honest review.

Such a sweet, intriguing story of being lost and found, of doubt and courage , friendship and love. This is the kind of story you read together with your middle schooler and share imagination And memory moments.

My daughter absolutely loved this book. I have my kindle to her and I never saw it again until that evening when she finished the book. Highly recommend to a 10 year old girl.

This book was such a sweet and poignant story about finding and trusting yourself. I really immediately fell in love with Lex the main character and the plot of this story had me flipping the pages to find out what happens. This book is set in a zoo and contains a treasure hunt, elephant bonding, a ghost, and quite the puzzle. If you love middle grade books with some heart and adventure, I think you should pick this one up.

Thanks to Netgalley for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review. This is a really unique and heartwarming middle grade coming of age story. I love elephants so I figured I'd really enjoy this. It's equal parts magical, mystery, and adventure, and I enjoyed every minute. I even teared up a little at the end. This will be educational for young readers and engaging. It includes good messaging about how painful bullying can be to the person on the receiving end, and how important friendship is. I would definitely have enjoyed this when I was younger. I would absolutely recommend it to parents of 4th-6th graders and teachers of those grades - that feels the right rough age range to me.

The Elephant's Girl by Celesta Rimington

“I understand them, even in their wildness. My heart feels like it’s being squeezed from caring, as though I can’t hold all the feelings in there.”

I picked up this book because I like the cover and the blurb sounds intriguing. I like mystery books. We love going to a zoo. It’s amazing to see all different animals. Imagine living in one. The zoo is Lex and Fisher’s playground.

Elephants are big and complex animals. But Niyah and Lex’s relationship is nice and the way they communicate is magical. I like Robert’s character. Lex and Fisher’s friendship is a great thing to have. It’s nice knowing someone is there for you and understands you.

The character of Amanda Holtz is unique and interesting. I might not have picked it up because of her but she has a purpose in assisting Lex find herself. It is a quick and fun read.

Thank you #netgalley and Random House Children's Crown Books for Young Readers for the free copy. All opinions are my own.

I have to say I read this book because elephants have always been one of my favorite animals.

Lexington Willow was found in a zoo hiding with an elephant after a tornado passed through Nebraska. All Lexington could ever remember was the zoo and the elephants. This was her home and her comfort zone. During the summer of this book, Lexington is really challenged to expand her horizons and to really reflect on who she is. Is she as part of the zoo as her beloved elephants or can she survive outside of it? Through adventures with her best friend Fisher she truly finds who she is and where she belongs.

Amazing story about being more than just a name.

The Elephant’s Girl opens in such a way that you have to keep reading:

“The wind and I have a complicated relationship. … I’ve tried asking the wind for my family back, but it isn’t a very good listener. It does most of the talking.”

The wind, it turns out, is always giving Lex advice — ghosts are real, elephants can speak… Lex knows the wind is right, at least about those two things, but the rest of the world doesn’t know that. With each turn of the page, you are further drawn into a world where ghosts do exist (and hold secrets); elephants talk (but only to a select few); and children live inside zoos.

Lex’s world is real and magical and fantastically interesting. What makes this book really work is not that other people don’t believe her — it’s that the most important people in her life do. Without the support of those key players, most of whom are adults, Lex would never have developed into the person she is. It takes an adept writer to take a story this direction, and I’m so glad Celesta Rimington did.

The Elephant’s Girl is a fairly quick read with just the right balance of intrigue and adventure. This one is sure to appeal to a large audience.

An orphan being raised in a zoo, a ghost, a mystery, and elephants! What a great book! I found myself crying out to the characters at times, warning them.

Lexington Willow was found in the African elephant enclosure, protected by one of the elephants, after a severe tornado. She was 5 years old and Roger, the zoo's train conductor, agrees to care for her until her parents are found. 7 years later, no one has ever showed up to claim Lex, and she is growing up inside the zoo, with the other employees acting as extended family.

But Lex has always had a connection with Nyah, the elephant who protected her during the tornado. She can see images when Nyah rumbles, images of other elephants and a beautiful woman. She feels like she is being tasked with finding those things that Nyah is missing.

One day, Lex is exploring in the overgrown woods outside the zoo when she comes across a camper-trailer and a pretty woman having tea. She sits with her and hears her story about being part of a circus before coming there. The woman asks her to find something she hid behind a loose board in the zoo. Oh, and one more thing about this woman...she's a misplaced spirit - a ghost.

Now Lex and her friend, Fisher, are on the search for a hidden treasure and they find so much more than they expected.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The characters were wonderful, the setting was unique, and did I mention elephants?

My thanks to Crown Books for Young Readers/Penguin Random House and NetGalley for an advance reader's copy in exchange for an honest review.

***Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review***

This book was delightful. The story was so interesting and both heartbreaking and heartwarming. There is a lovely combination of contemporary fiction, fantasy, and mystery. I found myself engrossed in this story from page one, and I really enjoyed it. There were a couple of short parts where I felt like it dragged, but for the most part, I thought this was a beautifully written and unique story about ghosts- sorry! Misplaced spirits! And finding yourself, finding your friends, and finding your family.

"The Elephant's Girl" by celesta Rimigton is a lovely coming of age novel about a 12-year-old
Lexington Willow, who doesn’t remember what happened before she got swept up by a tornado. A story of adventure and mystery. Ideal for guided reading with students in grades 3-5.

The Elephant’s Girl by Celesta Rimington is a charming and spellbinding story about a girl, Lex, who can communicate with both the wind and and elephant, Nyah. Lex is being raised in a zoo after being found at the age of four after a large tornado. She was found in the elephant exhibit being sheltered by Nyah. From the summary, I did not expect to be as captivated by the book as I was. The mystery behind Lex’s and Nyah’s backgrounds was riveting. I highly recommend this book to all readers but especially to animal lovers or lovers of the book The One and Only Ivan.

Based on the title and description I wasn't quite sure what to expect. But this is a wonderful story with a lot of depth. Rimington tells the story beautifully with ghosts, and animal connections in a believable fashion. Nothing is over the top and interactions are believable. What I like most is the gradual development of the characters are they grow and come to understand themselves and each other. This is definitely a book worth buying for your library. I also think this is a book kids will come back to again and again.

My family visited the elephants at the Omaha Zoo -- I was drawn in just by the setting for this book. My favorite more recent Newbery novel is the Graveyard Book -- I saw a connection to that story here.
The puzzles/mystery, magical realism, friendships make this a winner.

This middle-grade novel about creating family and finding out who you are is the perfect escape for our current time of uncertainty. I was quickly swept away by this engrossing story about a girl with magic powers and the elephant who loves her.

The Elephant's Girl is a wonderfully uplifting story about family, home, and finding your place when you're different. It will sit on my shelf next to "The One and Only Ivan" and I can't wait for my reluctant reader to get their hands on it. Riminton has created a sympathetic narrator with special powers--the ability to speak to the wind, an elephant, and a misplaced spirit, but not in a scary way at all. The way she got this ability is described in a way that makes the reader feel as if just maybe we could do it, too, if only given the same opportunities.

I liked the balance of the strong male best friend with the strong female lead, and I love a protagonist with messy hair--something I relate to a lot! As a former single parent, I always appreciate a book that has one parent be enough, without needing to find someone to marry them off to.

Finally, read the author's note at the end. I appreciated learning about how she made the choices she did in portraying the elephants and their environment. I'll definitely be checking out some of the books on the recommended reading list.

The storytelling and heart of Katherine Applegate and Sarah Pennypacker. I can’t wait to share this lovely book.

Lexington Willow lives an unusual life- under the care of a zoo engineer, she lives on the property. But her life has always been unusual- seven years ago, she was found in the elephant habitat after a devastating tornado. This summer has an air of change, and the wind that spoke to Lex her whole life, will push her to explore the mysteries of her world.

Rimington clearly put immense care into writing this book. Her passion for ethical zookeeping and animal rights is seamlessly blended with pure magic and supernatural elements. The additional plot lines surrounding bullying and Fisher were beautifully complex and demonstrative of real-world friendships. There’s so much I could say about this fabulous book- it’s all good and I can’t wait to share with middle grade readers of all ages!