Read The Girl Who Stole an Elephant free for 7 days. £7.99/month after - less than a paperback.
Nizrana Farook's The Girl Who Stole an Elephant is a fast, daring adventure for 10 year olds about a girl who robs the Queen for all the right reasons.
Chaya is a thief. She steals to help people in her village, and she has strong opinions about how many jewels one queen really needs.
This time she's gone much too far. During the King's feast she breaks into the Queen's rooms and fills a pouch with sapphires and rubies, all to pay for treatment for a boy who was attacked by a crocodile. She gets away, just, by diving underneath the King's great elephant, Ananda.
Then it all goes wrong. The King's soldiers start turning her village upside down looking for the thief. Her best friend Neel, a carpenter's apprentice, hides the jewels in a clever box with a secret compartment. Then the box gets sold to Nour, a rich merchant's daughter who turns out to be far sharper than Chaya expected.
Chaya is a brilliant heroine. She's bold, bossy and quick on her feet (she climbs pillars like a gecko), and she's often completely wrong. Seeing her realise that her crime is hurting the very people she wanted to help is the heart of the opening chapters.
Her scenes with Nour crackle. Neither girl can stand the other, and Nour has a habit of winning. Isn't it satisfying when a bossy hero finally meets her match?
It's set on the island kingdom of Serendib, inspired by Sri Lanka. Your reader will practically taste the jambu fruit and feel the scorching cobbles under Chaya's bare feet as she runs from the guards.
A heads-up for more sensitive readers. This is a kingdom with a cruel, paranoid king. Soldiers throw a family's belongings into the street while a boy screams that it wasn't him. Then Neel is arrested, and Chaya learns he's been condemned to death for her crime. It's tense, and it's meant to be.
A child who gets very upset about unfairness may find those chapters hard going. A reader who loves high stakes and a daring rescue plan will be gripped. And yes, the title tells you where it's heading, with an elephant, a jungle and some leeches still to come.
If your reader falls for Serendib, The Boy Who Met a Whale is set on the same island. Razi, a fisher boy, drags a half-conscious stranger out of a drifting boat, and the men hunting him arrive on the beach soon after.
A library hand-picked by an English teacher, delivered through a calm, ad-free app. If your child already loves reading, we keep up.
7-day free trial. Then £7.99/month.
