On a summer day in old Siam (now called Thailand), "hot as an oven with its doors flung open," Run-Run, a young orphan boy, is returning from clearing tree stumps on the hillside with his 50-year-old elephant Walking Mountain. When the elephant sprays a trunkful of river water and splashes one of the king's many sons, the one called Noi the Idle, the prince is enraged. To punish Run-Run, the prince sends the boy a gift—a sacred white elephant named Sahib. A white elephant is to be fed the finest foods, treated like an honored guest, and never used for work, which could ruin a poor boy, but even so, the resourceful Run-Run comes to love the pesty spoiled Sahib.

This is a short and compelling historical novel that defines the term "white elephant." Readers might enjoy doing a bit of research on working elephants and the country of Siam, now Thailand, for additional facts and background. See how elephants are used in Thailand today in two intriguing color photo-essays: Katya Arnold's Elephants Can Paint Too! and Richard Sobol's An Elephant in the Backyard. Go to www.thaifocus.com/elephant/ for photographs, information, and video clips from the Elephant Nature Park in Northern Thailand, near Chiang Mai. It is considered good luck in Thailand to walk under a white elephant, as you can see in a six-minute clip on YouTube, called “King's White Elephant Surin Thailand” which you can view at www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1RhkbweJQY.


THEMES: ELEPHANTS. HISTORICAL FICTION. MULTICULTURAL BOOKS. ORPHANS. THAILAND.