Illustrated by Ed Young
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2011
$15.99, ages 6 and up, 144 pages
In this quirky, wonderful little novel, an abandoned baby crawls off into the night and into the heart of lonely ex-circus elephant.
Along the way, the baby grows into a boy and helps the elephant find a beautiful thing with feathers that stole the elephant's heart years ago.
And the boy, who wonders what happened to his parents, discovers what it truly means to give his heart to another.
Birch, the elephant, feels that something is missing from his life, and is sad that his trunk is used for menial things.
He's been put to work hosing off cars at a car wash since the circus shut down. Yet it is not what trunks are for, he tells himself.
They're for touching, lifting, greeting, caressing, making things of beauty.
Ever since he almost saw a painting of a phoenix, he's daydreamed of using his trunk to paint.
Yet Birch doesn't quite now how to get out from under his situation.
Then one day he finds a baby boy in a pile of leaves and his world changes.
