Rasco From RIF

WEEK’S END: What if? Why not? Could it be?

October 23rd, 2009

The Magician’s Elephant by Kate DiCamillo and illustrated by Yoko Tanaka was for me a magical, quietly thrilling reading experience.  The language flows from DiCamillo in  a lyrical manner that is perfectly and exquisitely illustrated by Yoko Tanaka.  A quote by Tanaka herself captures perfectly my feeling of the story:  Reading The Magician’s Elephant made me feel as though I had just watched a breathtaking play on stage.

The one question I had of this book is whether children will pick it up and discover the awaiting “magic.”  A posting on Educating Alice ponders this issue as well.  I do, however, see the book becoming a treasured read-aloud book in small groups;  I certainly will be reading it with the children in my extended family over the holidays.  I can also foresee this book becoming a special gift of choice, in particular for the persons of whom I often say “there is nothing I can give she needs.”  Now I can give “magic” portrayed through words and drawings.

Enjoy!
Carol

WEEK’S END closes the work week with some thoughts, comments, feelings about some book and/or event recently experienced.  If a book, it may be a children’s book or an adult book or both.  If an event, it may be literacy-related or not.  But it comes at week’s end.

Twitter: @RascofromRIF

Filed under: Children's Books, Other Blogs, Week's End

Tags: Educating Alice, kate dicamillo, The Magician's Elephant, Yoko Tanaka