AN ELEPHANT IN THE GARDEN - By Michael Morpurgo

 Michael Morpurgo is one of my favourite authors. I read lots of his books. I was very intrigued by the title Elephant in the Garden, knowing that this book was inspired by a true story that happend during World War II. I kept asking myself "Elephant during the war? Elephant kept in a garden? I must read that book!"
I was very curious to know how an elephant called Marleen ended up living in a family's garden in Dresden.
The story is told by an old lady named Lizzie from her bed in a nursing home in Canada. Her audience is her nurse and the nurse's son Karl ,who reminds
Lizzie of her young brother. During WWII Lizzie, her mum, Mutti, and her younger brother Karli lived in Dresden. They father was fighting in Russia. Mutti was a zoo keeper at the Dresden Zoo and cared a lot about the animals. She had seen the small elephant been born and even named him herself – Marlene.
They got very attached to each other, especially after the death of Marlene's mum. Mutti persuaded the head of the zoo to let her keep Marlene in their garden. She knew that all the animals would be destroyed before the air attack on Dresden. Dresden was bombarded heavily. Lizzie, her mum, Karli and the elephant Marlene tried to escape into the country, heading towards a relative"s farm. Their journey was very hard physically and emotionally. Have they reached safety? What happened to them all? Did their father came back from the war?…
It's a great, sweet story that doesn't go too much into the horrors of the war and I think would be enjoyed by children aged between 9-12. My only criticism is that it's a bit slow in some parts. I would also like to see more illustrations in the book, hence the fact that it's a kids book. I would give it 9 out of 10.

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