Faithful Elephants by Yukio Tsuchiya

CONTROVERSIAL BOOK

The first thing that struck me about this book were the extremely stimulating and colorful illustrations of Japan that resembled water colors. Also, I immediately realized that this book has an involved and complicated story with quite a bit of text. This book deals with a controversial aspect of history, and centers around a time when Japan was at war and being bombed. The Japanese army commanded zoo-keepers to poison and kill animals so they would not escape if bombs were to wreck the zoo. This book has some very dark aspects and themes. For example, in one scene zoo-keepers are starving an elephant to death over the course of seventeen long, painful days. However, eventually the zoo-keepers take a stand and begin feeding the remaining two elephants. The books is obviously controversial because it deals with war and the intentional, and brutal, killing of animals. I would use this book with 4th or 5th grade readers (perhaps in connection with a History lesson), as I found it to be a very informative and well written and illustrated book.