THE MAGICIAN'S ELEPHANT by Kate DiCamillo, illustrated by Yoko Tanaka, Candlewick, September 2009, 208p., ISBN: 978-0-7636-4410-9

"You may say that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one"

-- John Lennon

I'd been waiting for just the right book to send to a nine-year-old I met last month.  After getting my opportunity to enjoy THE MAGICIAN'S ELEPHANT, I knew that I'd found what I'd been waiting for.  I immediately mailed it off to her. 

And, yet, there are so many layers and so much to consider in Kate DiCamillo's upcoming tale of the possible that I will not be in the least surprised when someone employs it as the subject of a Master's thesis.

Standing under a street lamp on a back lane in San Francisco, reading in the shivery night breeze off of the Bay, I was taken up and transported to late 1800s Baltese.

"Leo Matienne had the soul of a poet, and because of this, he liked very much to consider questions that had no answers.

"He liked to ask 'What if?" and 'Why not?' and 'Could it possibly be?'"

I'm a proud and unrepentant dreamer.  I feel no shame for asking the sort of questions that Leo -- a short policeman with an impossibly large mustache -- asks.  I chafe at being informed that "That's just the way it is." or "There's nothing that can be done about it." or that "Rules are there for a reason and need to be followed."  I'm just dumb enough or crazy enough to believe that anything can happen.  And so a story about how -- when everyone comes together -- they can make anything come true is sweet music to my soul.

Amidst a cold, endless, dark and gray winter without snow, the young orphan Peter Augustus Duchene has been informed by a fortuneteller that his little sister, Adele, is actually alive -- contrary to what Peter's guardian, a former soldier, has always stated.  But where, then, is Adele?  The fortuneteller tells Peter that the elephant will lead him to his sister. 

But that is impossible!  There are no elephants so far from Africa and India, in a miserably cold, gray place like Baltese.

(At least not yet.)

Enter the elephant:

"Not far from the Apartments Polonaise, across the rooftops and through the darkness of the winter night, stood the Bliffendorf Opera House, and that evening upon its stage, a magician of advanced years and failing reputation performed the most astonishing magic of his career. 

"He intended to conjure a bouquet of lilies, but instead, the magician brought forth an elephant. 

"The elephant came crashing through the ceiling of the opera house amid a shower of plaster dust and roofing tiles and landed in the lap of a noblewoman, a certain Madam Bettine La Vaughn, to whom the magician had intended to present the bouquet.

"Madam LaVaughn's legs were crushed.  She was thereafter confined to a wheelchair and given to exclaiming often, and in a voice of wonder, in the midst of some conversation that had nothing at all to do with elephants or roofs, 'But perhaps you do not understand.  I was crippled by an elephant!  Crippled by an elephant that came through the roof!'

"As for the magician, he was immediately, at the behest of Madam LaVaughn, imprisoned."

So now there's an elephant, but things seem even more impossibly out of sorts.  This poor elephant, who never sought a trip to the opera and who is now so far away from home and her loving family, is being held captive in an undisclosed location by the police.  How will Peter track down the elephant and then persuade her to lead him to Adele?  What of the magician whose hubris has caused such pain but may now be the catalyst for so much joy? 

In the end, it will take everyone's involvement -- including Madam LaVaughn's -- to make the impossible possible.

"No one knows for sure

Something might come along

That could save the day and help us out

And fix whatever's wrong"

-- Peter Alsop

"'What if?'

"'Why not?'

"'Could it possibly be?"'

Just imagine what real world problems could be solved if we all joined forces to do so.

Richie Partington, MLIS

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