From the New York Times bestselling author of Counting by 7s comes a heartfelt middle-grade novel about « the importance of compassion and bravery when facing life’s challenges” (Kirkus) for fans of The One and Only Ivan and Front Desk.
THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
by Holly Goldberg Sloan
Penguin US, March 2021
It’s been almost a year since Sila’s mother traveled halfway around the world to Turkey, hoping to secure the immigration paperwork that would allow her to return to her family in the U.S. The long separation is almost impossible for Sila to withstand. But things change when she accompanies her father (who is a mechanic) to fix a truck outside their Oregon town. There, behind an enormous stone wall, Sila meets a grandfatherly man who only months before won the lottery. Their new alliance leads to the rescue of a circus elephant named Veda, and then to a friendship with an unusual boy named Mateo, proving that comfort and hope come in the most unlikely of places. A moving story of family separation and the importance of the connection between animals and humans, this novel has the enormous heart and uplifting humor that readers have come to expect from the beloved author of Counting by 7s.
Holly Goldberg Sloan spent part of her childhood living in Istanbul, Turkey. After graduating from Wellesley College in Massachusetts, she worked in commercial production in Los Angeles and in her twenties began writing family feature films, including Angels in the Outfield and Made In America. She was the first woman to direct a live action film for the Walt Disney Company when she directed (and wrote) The Big Green. She is the author of six previous novels, including the E.B. White Read-Aloud Honor Winner Counting by 7s, the New York Times Bestseller Short, and the highly praised To Night Owl from Dogfish (which she co-wrote with author Meg Wolitzer). The mother of two sons, she and her husband, Gary Rosen, live in Los Angeles.
Magnolia Moon is nine years old, likes Greek mythology, her best friend Imogen May (who understands the importance of questions like, “If you could be one fruit, any fruit, what would you be?”), wishing trees, and speaking crows. She knows instinctively that buffadillos are armadillos crossed with buffalos and believes there are walramingos living in her garden. She’s also the kind of person who can be entrusted with a great many secrets.
Eleven-year-old Maybelle Lane collects sounds. She records the Louisiana crickets chirping, Momma strumming her guitar, their broken trailer door squeaking. But the crown jewel of her collection is a sound she didn’t collect herself: an old recording of her daddy’s warm-sunshine laugh, saved on an old phone’s voicemail. It’s the only thing she has of his, and the only thing she knows about him. Until the day she hears that laugh—his laugh—pouring out of the car radio. Going against Momma’s wishes, Maybelle starts listening to her radio DJ daddy’s new show, drinking in every word like a plant leaning toward the sun. When he announces he’ll be the judge of a singing contest in Nashville, she signs up. What better way to meet than to stand before him and sing with all her heart? But the road to Nashville is bumpy. Her starch-stiff neighbor Mrs. Boggs offers to drive her in her RV. And a bully of a boy from the trailer park hitches a ride, too. These are not the people May would have chosen to help her, but it turns out they’re searching for things as well. And the journey will mold them into the best kind of family—the kind you choose for yourself.