The Elephant in the Garden

Name: The Elephant in the Garden
Author: Michael Morpurgo
ISBN: 9780007352128

by Michael Morpurgo

Ages 9–12 Reading age 10 Novel Set in the past movingadventurous

When Dresden is bombed, a family flees west across Germany with a young elephant from the zoo walking beside them.

A story about children and animals, moving and adventurous in tone. We would put it with children of 9–12, and at a reading age of about 10 for reading alone.

Worth knowing before you buy

Death in wartime
Wartime separation

None of this makes it a bad book — often the opposite. It is here so you can decide whether it is right for your child now or in a year or two.

Our take on this book

As the bombs fall on Dresden in 1945, a family flees the burning city — taking with them Marlene, an elephant from the zoo that would otherwise have been shot — and the perilous journey that follows is remembered, decades later, by the old woman who lived it, told to a boy in a nursing home. Michael Morpurgo braids together a real historical horror and an unforgettable animal companion, in the humane, storytelling style that is his hallmark. The wartime setting brings real danger and the frightening reality of the bombing, handled with his usual gentleness and hope. For a confident reader of nine to twelve it is a moving, gripping novel that makes an enormous piece of history intimate through one family and one extraordinary elephant, and a fine example of how Morpurgo helps children feel their way into the past — exciting and tender at once, and quietly unforgettable.