Runaways

Megan Rix's Runaways is a First World War animal story for 10 year olds about two circus elephants and the old dog who loves them.

What happens

It's September 1917, and the war that was meant to be over by Christmas is still dragging on. The Lewis Brothers' circus is putting on its very last show to a nearly empty tent. Albert, the elephant trainer, is fifteen. He's off to fight too (the ringmaster tells the recruiting officer he's nineteen).

Albert's animals are Shanti, a gentle Asian elephant, her two-year-old calf Tara and Harvey, a grey-whiskered Border collie. Tara is a proper little madam. She messes up Albert's hair with her trunk and turns her bottom to him when it's time for her headdress. You'll fall for her in about a page!

Shanti is meant to be going to a farm in the Lake District. The army has taken all the farm's horses, and Yolanda and AJ can't wait to have an elephant of their own. (AJ mostly worries about being sat on.)

But the ringmaster has done a secret deal with Carl, a cruel trainer from a bigger circus. And Carl wants Tara.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

The scene where Tara is taken is hard to read. Shanti won't leave her baby, so the men hurt her with a sharp elephant hook and chain her into a horse box, where the chains cut her skin. Harvey tries to defend them and his leg is slashed. This happens early and isn't a spoiler.

A child who finds cruelty to animals upsetting will feel every bit of it, so this might be one to read together. For a reader who can take it, there's a huge amount of heart.

The chapters move between Albert, the animals and the farm children, so you're always hoping their paths will cross again.

The home front feels real too. Annie from the Women's Land Army turns up with a steam logger (until the army takes that as well). The village teacher asks how many children it would take to balance an elephant. And there's a lady in the front row at the circus who usually writes about bunnies (see if your reader can guess who she is).

What to read next

If they're after more animals swept up in the First World War, A Soldier's Friend follows a stray puppy and a fearless tabby cat from a Battersea street towards the trenches.