4. Faithful Elephants

Title: Faithful Elephants
Author: Yukio Tsuchiya
Illustrator: Ted Lewin
Translator: Tomoko Tsuchiya Dykes
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co.
Copyright Date: (Text 1951) October 1997
Number of Pages: 32
Reading Level: 9+yrs
Genre: Nonfiction, Historical

Summary
During World War II Tokyo was bombed constantly and Tokyo was terrified that if a bomb hit near or on the zoo that many of the dangerous animals might get out and kill people. The army ordered that all the dangerous animals be killed so that the problem would be fixed. For most of the animals all the keepers had to do was poison the food and the animals would die. They tried this with the elephants but they were too smart and would sort out the poisoned food from the good food. The zoo keepers then tried to inject poison into the elephants but their skin was so tough that the needles would bend. The only option left to the zoo keepers was to starve the elephants. They began with John and he died seventeen days later. The other two Tonky and Wanly were starved. It was so hard on the keepers that they wept for the animals having to suffer. The elephants would do tricks to try and get food until their bodies were so week that they couldn’t do it anymore. The keepers kept hoping that the war would end so that the elephants could live. Two weeks later they found the elephants dead trying to do one last trick. The elephant trainers cried and yelled, cursing the war.

Recommendation
This is such a sad story that I don’t think I’d want to read it to kids at bedtime. I’d want a child to read it to see what some of the effects of war are that people don’t ever think about. I would recommend it to a teacher who might want to do a history lesson around it. Or it would be useful to sober a class up really quickly.

Problems/Conflict
There are a few words that might be hard to say for a child but by the time they are able to read it, they should be able to sound them out. This book would need an explanation of war and possibly a talk on death.

My Reaction
Faithful Elephants makes me really sad because of the people who had to watch those animals die so slowly and painfully. It is something that I would never have thought about as an effect of war. I think it was beautifully written and the way that it starts and ends gives a nice peaceful feeling.