This book sparked my interest in WWII and how zoos handled that situation, but over all I wasn't drawn into this book like I hoped. One of my issues is the break in narrative. It switches from the present to the past, which is not a problem in and of itself. The problem is that the story breaks off into the present that just reads so ... fake. The pieces in the past are written well and I enjoyed it, but that going back to present ... it just wasn't done well, in my humble opinion.

This was a truly magnificent book, a touching tale about an elephant, survival, and, above all else, the true meaning of family.