Whistling for the Elephants [Paperback]

Sandi Toksvig (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 7, 2002

There are two basic types of animal in Nature's Kingdom. The first, like lions and turtles, produce many offspring and simply hope that some will survive. The second, like elephants and people, produce one or two at long intervals and make great efforts to rear them. My mother belonged in a class of her own. She produced two at short intervals and made no effort to rear them whatsoever. Thus Dorothy, aged ten, finds herself making her own way in Sassaspaneck, New York in 1968. Her English father, who never talks above a whisper due to a youthful injury with a cricket ball, has tucked her and her mother away where the potential for embarrassment can be limited. All the other children in town have gone to camp, so Dorothy must provide her own entertainment. She comes across a small, faded zoo on the outskirts of town, and as she begins to get to know the eccentric group of women who live there she begins to discover a world way beyond the one she has glimpsed so far.

Editorial Reviews

Review

An eccentric cast of characters, human and animal, features in this first novel for adults by comic actress Toksvig. When eleven-year-old tomboy Dorothy Kane moves with her upper-class English parents to the small town of Sassaspaneck, New York, the result is bewilderment on every side. The Kanes are a family of "partial communicators", physically remote and emotionally vague: "I suppose a lot of people have never seen their father naked; I had never seen mine without a tie." Confronted with a 1960s America shaken by a war in Vietnam, by campaigns for civil rights and women's liberation, Dorothy's parents retreat into crisis, leaving her to pick her own, troubled way through the last, crucial summer of her childhood. She receives help and inspiration from an unlikely source: a trio of women who live on the edge of town in a dilapidated zoo. Gradually she uncovers details of the zoo's flamboyant and tragic history, its origins in passion and extravagant wealth, the sec Whistling for the Elephants is a gently comic novel about transformation and the getting of wisdom; about finding the ways to make being a girl "just fine"; and about relearning from the animal kingdom those lessons of love and fidelity that human beings Sarah Waters, AMAZON.CO.UK

About the Author

Following a first-class degree from Cambridge, Sandi Toksvig went into the theatre as a writer and performer and was a founder member of the Comedy Store Players. Well known for her television and radio work as a presenter, writer and actor, she has written six books for children.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Little Brown P/B (March 7, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 075153286X
• ISBN-13: 978-0751532869
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 7.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,687,696 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well worth getting!, February 13, 2001

By 

Antony J Shepherd (Croydon, Surrey United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: WHISTLING FOR THE ELEPHANTS (Paperback)

Whistling For The Elephants is the story of tomboyish Dorothy, who at the age of ten is whisked off by her parents to a small town in America where she struggles to fit in. During the long summer while all the other kids are at summer camp, she comes across the old zoo, and meets the strange people who live there. The zoo is endangered by the local redneck mayor, who wants to knock it all down and build a football stadium in its place. Only the women of the zoo can stand against him, and Dorothy learns much about history, the townspeople, and herself in the process. It's an excellent book, a tragicomedy rite of passage and it's a really good read. Well worth getting.

4.0 out of 5 stars IF YOU DON'T LAUGH, YOU MUST CRY, July 7, 2005

By 

Bookingitgirl (Lexington, SC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Whistling for the Elephants (Paperback)

I first read Flying Under Bridges and adored that book. The author has an uncanny ability to present very dark and disturbing topics and then disect these topics to find the absurd, the laughable. I feel the author is very good at tying together her characters and, of course, developing them fully. Whistling for Elephants is a coming of age story, a memoir of sorts of a young awkward child in a dysfunctional family finding acceptance at a zoo with the zoo's staff---all of whome have interesting lives to share. It is much more than this, but that is the bare bones! Enjoy!