The Elephant in the Room

Holly Goldberg Sloan's The Elephant in the Room is a quiet, sad and often funny story for 11 year olds about a girl, a lonely lottery winner and an elephant who needs somewhere to go.

What happens

Sila's mum went back to Turkey to sort out a problem with her immigration papers. It was meant to take eight days. Sila is now on day 237, crossing off a calendar on her bedroom wall every night.

She's stopped seeing her friends. She comes straight home, sits at the computer and waits for the video call with her mum. She and her dad mostly have scrambled eggs for dinner. It's a very quiet kind of sad, and you feel every bit of it.

Then her dad, who's a mechanic, drags her along to look at a truck that won't start. It belongs to Gio, an old man in a lemon-yellow jacket who lives out of town behind a giant wall of rocks. He's won a share of the biggest lottery prize in the state's history. He's also very lonely. (And it turns out his late wife was Sila's favourite teacher.)

Gio doesn't need Sila to talk, which is exactly what she needs. They eat doughnuts on his porch in total silence and it's lovely.

Later, at a doughnut shop off the highway, a whole travelling circus pulls in out of the rain. It's closing down for good. In the back of the biggest truck is an elephant called Veda. Elephants just happen to be Sila's favourite animal.

Can you guess where Gio's thoughts go next?

The story moves between Sila and Gio, so you see how much they both need something to care about. It's full of small, perfect details, like the lumpy stuffed elephant her mum made her that still sleeps on her bed.

A couple of things are worth knowing. Gio's wife died of lung cancer a few years before the story starts, and he talks about it. The circus owner also admits they used a metal hook and electric prods on the animals, which new laws have now banned. Neither is dwelt on, but an animal-loving child might want a heads-up about the second one.

It's a slow, thoughtful read rather than a big adventure. For a reader who loves stories about kindness between unlikely friends, it's a real treat.

What to read next

Holly Goldberg Sloan wrote Appleblossom the Possum too. It's told from the point of view of the littlest of thirteen possum babies, whose mum gives the whole litter very serious acting lessons.