The Magician's Elephant, by Kate DiCamillo

Remember when I wrote about reading the first chapter of The Magician's Elephant in Borders a couple posts back? Well, I got it from the library a while ago, and today I picked it up and read the whole thing in one whole day! In this case, the book being such a quick read went in its favor. I love the author, Kate DiCamillo's writing style, and this book was another one of her sweet and simple masterpieces for the young at heart.

The story is told from the view of many characters, all interrelated to each other in the end, but it's about a boy who goes to a fortune teller one day and asks if his sister is alive. The teller says she does indeed live, and that he will be led to her by, of all things, an elephant. Now, this is quite a silly idea, because no one in his village there has ever encountered such a creature, and besides, what does an elephant have to do with finding his sister? Mysterious, no?...

Well soon after that, a magician in town is performing a show, and instead of conjuring up a bouquet of flowers, he instead makes a great big elephant suddenly, and unexpectedly, crash through the ceiling and into the room! Now that's real magic! And the magician doesn't even know how he did it! Well, not really. But the details are for you to read later.

The way the characters were written was probably my favorite part of the book. Each character gets a clearly written history, and you get a wonderful view of their hopes and dreams, and what is nearest and dearest to their hearts. Even the elephant gets her point of view told in the story. And like I said before, all of these characters are connected, and eventually they all meet each other and come to the same conclusion that this is a small and magic world that we live in. Even when things are at their darkest and bleakest, impossible things can happen. Like an elephant appearing out of thin air!

This book is highly, highly recommended. The pictures inside are good too, and illustrate the story's mood and events perfectly, in my opinion. Imagine how quickly it will take you to read and take something special away from this book.

Books I just read in Borders ^,^

After a little shopping yesterday, my mom dropped Annette and me off at Borders so we could hang out. I really like it when we do that. ^__^ So on this particular bookstore visit, I took a good look at 4 awesome books and read a couple chapters or more than 20 pages of each one. Here's my impression of them, in the order they were read:

1: Ring of Fire, by Pierdomenico Baccalario ~ Boy, that's a hard name to pronounce! Sounds Italian, doesn't it? Well, if this series gets famous, maybe the author's name will be easier to remember. Anyway, this is the first volume in his 4-part Century series, and I picked it up in the first place simply because I remembered that it was recommended to me by Dave and his Latiener Gang. I read the first 3 chapters, I think, and even though I heard that the beginning is supposed to be a little slow, I thought it was quite well-written. You meet most of the characters right away, including all 4 kids the book is supposed to center on. I didn't read enough to get very into the story, just enough to get a sample and know that it's pretty much hooked me. I needed to put it down though, because I only had an hour in the store and I wanted to see what else there was to read. Still, I definitely say that this book's a keeper. ^_^ Thanks, Lat Gang!

2: This Book Is Not Good For You, by Pseudonymous Bosch ~ Hey, isn't it a coincidence that this author has the same initials as the Ring of Fire author? Oh well. So this book I just had to read, because this is the 3rd book in this really funny "Secret" series. I think that's what it's called, because Book 1 is called The Name of This Book is Secret, and Book 2 is If You're Reading This, It's Too Late. (Really funny titles, huh? ^_~) As might be apparent by his book titles and his pen name, Bosch's writing style and mysterious personality in the world and the book bears a strong resemblance to Lemony Snicket, who is the author of A Series of Unfortunate Events. You'd have to read the first couple books to appreciate this one, but I think this gets off to a pretty good start. This, too, will go right on my "to-read" pile in the back of my mind.

3: The Magician's Elephant, by Kate DiCamillo ~ The first chapter was quite long, so that's all I read. But I think it's still a worth-while book. Have you ever read a book by Kate DiCamillo? She hasn't written many. Because of Winn-Dixie, The Tiger Rising, The Tale of Despereaux, and The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. Each book is a stand-alone novel, but they're all very sweet stories. The little that I've read so far from her latest release is about a boy who goes to see a fortune teller who tells him his sister is alive, and to find her he has to follow an elephant (?). Which is weird, because elephants aren't common in his village. (Then again, they're not exactly common anywhere else, besides in zoos and in Africa!) Anyway, I think it'll be a good story to get into. I can probably finish it in a wink if I went to the bookstore again and it was all I read.

Last, but certainly not least, 4: Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins!!! ~ I'm sure pretty much everyone has heard of this book, the well awaited sequel to the Hunger Games. This was the last book I was able to read on my wonderful Borders visit, and most probably the best. I also read this for the longest, covering roughly 80 pages/ 3 chapters in one sitting. I couldn't exactly finish Chap. 3 though, because then my mom came back to pick us up and started whistling for me, so I unfortunately lost my place in the book.

On the plus side however, it's an incredibly good thing I was able to reserve this book from my library! I'm practically never able to get the newest, most hyped up books from the library so soon after they come out, but I got Catching Fire! Well, I don't have it now, but I'll patiently be waiting for it to come in, so that's awesome! ^_^

BTW, here's the link to an ultra-cool contest the Latiener's are having to give away a copy of Catching Fire! You can either get the ARC or the hard copy. More details to enter and win are in the post. I also have the link on my sidebar. Just check the Lats out if you have any interest in owning this amazing book!