The Elephant in the Room
Written by Holly Goldberg Sloan
Published by Penguin Young Readers Group
It’s been almost a year since Sila’s mother traveled halfway around the world to Turkey, hoping to secure the immigration paperwork that would allow her to return to her family in the United States.
The long separation is almost impossible for Sila to withstand. But things change when Sila accompanies her father (who is a mechanic) outside their Oregon town to fix a truck. There, behind an enormous stone wall, she meets a grandfatherly man who only months before won the state lottery. Their new alliance leads to the rescue of a circus elephant named Veda, and then to a friendship with an unusual boy named Mateo, proving that comfort and hope come in the most unlikely of places.
A moving story of family separation and the importance of the connection between animals and humans, this novel has the enormous heart and uplifting humor that readers have come to expect from the beloved author of Counting by 7s.
Primary ISBN: 9780735229945
Available As: Hardcover, Paperback, eBook
Middle Grade, Age 10 or older
Community Represented: Kurdish/Kurdish American, Mexican/Mexican American
Themes: Cross-Group Friendship, Family Relationship: Parents, Family Separation: On Journey, Generation: 2nd, Own Voices/Lived Experience, Refugee: Asylee
Setting: United States
Character’s New Arrival/New American Status: 2nd Generation
Book Creator(s) Connection to the Community Represented: Own Voices/Lived Experience
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