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‘We need the literature of other countries to expand our
horizons and stimulate our ideas. Without it, we are not only
diminished, we are starved’
(The Times, Magnus Linklater 29/06/05)
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Invisible Elephant (The)
by Anna Anisimova
Age Range: 6-8
From Finland-based Russian author Anna Anisimova comes this heartwarming chapter book narrated by a young blind girl who joyfully embraces life using her senses and vivid imagination as she explores her environment and the world outside.
Written as four separate stories – there’s a visit to the museum and zoo to discover elephants; Days with her grandfather with his ‘three legs’ “two are quiet and one is noisy, like a woodpecker”. The walking stick is named ‘Speedy’ and the girl’s imagination abounds as she transforms it into a horse and a musician; there’s the present of a huge rubber ring from her parents that becomes a whale and a story about learning braille where the stylus is like a woodpecker – “It’s a woodpecker hammering his beak on the slate”.
Anisimova’s sensitive style of writing, skilfully translated by Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp, demonstrates that vision loss does not prevent the young protagonist from finding
ways to navigate her own way in the world. She comes across as capable and cheerful with a sense of wonder at everything she experiences.
Anisimova says at the beginning of the book that:
“Everyone has their unique abilities and possibilities.
When we understand people who are different from us, we’re not afraid to talk
to them and we don’t deprive ourselves of the joy of their friendship.
Isn’t that what the world is all about? ”
Together with the gorgeous and inventive illustrations by Yulia Sidneva, this is a beautiful and unusual book that will help readers understand that there are many different ways of seeing the world.
The Invisible Elephant was included in The 2017 IBBY Selection of Outstanding Books for Young People with Disabilities and was staged as a performance by the Theatre Pilgrims, Novosibirsk, Russia in 2018.