The Child's Elephant

Author(s): Rachel Campbell-Johnston

Fiction (8 to 12 years)

"I cannot trumpet this book loudly enough. Scary, funny, romantic, heartwarming; an elephant book you won't forget". (Michael Morpurgo). When a baby elephant is abandoned on the African savannah, a young boy named Bat takes her back to his village and cares for her. But Bat's grandmother explains that Meya cannot stay with them for ever - the call of the wild will always be sounding in her soul. And there are frightening rumours on the wind, of kidnapping and suffering and war. Bat and his friend Muka are catapulted into a new life of unimaginable terror. Will the bond between elephant and child remain strong enough to save them? This book is a thrilling, heartbreaking and beautiful novel from an exciting new voice in children's books, Rachel Campbell-Johnston.


Product Information

The story of the extraordinary friendship between a boy and an elephant, and their incredible survival against all the odds.

CILIP Carnegie Medal shortlist 2014

"I cannot trumpet this book loudly enough. Scary, funny, romantic, heart-warming; an elephant book you won't forget" -- Michael Morpurgo "A big and important story ... that smoulders in the mind long after the final page" -- Annabel Pitcher Guardian "Lyrical, compelling and totally convincing ... a great new children's classic" The Times, Saturday Review "Pulls no punches ... There's a moving, almost spiritual ending" Independent on Sunday "Rachel Campbell-Johnston's work is as vivid as it is moving" The Sunday Review

Rachel Campbell-Johnston is the chief art critic and poetry critic for The Times. She studied English Literature at the University of Edinburgh and has a PhD in modern and contemporary British poetry. Her first book, Mysterious Wisdom: The Life and Work of Samuel Palmer, was published to great acclaim in 2011. Rachel lives in the country with her family and an assortment of animals. The Child's Elephant is her first book for children.

General Fields

  • : 9780552571142
  • : Random House Children's Publishers UK
  • : Corgi Childrens
  • : 0.282
  • : January 2014
  • : 198mm X 129mm
  • : United Kingdom
  • : August 2014
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Rachel Campbell-Johnston
  • : Paperback
  • : 814
  • : 823.92
  • : 400
  • : Black & white section & chapter head illustrations