Elephant Run **1/2

By Roland Smith.
Published 2007 Scholastic Inc. by arrangement with Hyperion Books for Children.
An imprint of Disney Children's Book Group.
318 pages.

It's kind of unfair to use the same rating scale for children's book as for adult books. If this were a book rated on say, a special scale for children's books, it would be at least rated 3 stars or more. Adult books are usually more complex and subtle and more profound. There might be a few children's book that that one could argue might garner a 4 star rating, but they are usually classics, and I would bet that part of their charm is the memory we have of them when we read them as children. Call me out on this, but I bet that after rereading some of these books as adults, we'd have to reassess our opinion of them if we judged them objectively (which is an impossibility).

The book claims to be a book for reluctant male readers. That's because it has action and adventure and all that. I would agree to a certain point. The beginning 20 - 25% might seem a little slow paced for a 'reluctant' reader, though certainly not for me, a patient and voracious reader. The book is set in war time Burma. Before the Japanese enter the book, there is lots of discussion about the Burmese culture and the training of animals. Fascinating for me, but I wonder if a 'reluctant' reader could get through this.

I've already given some plot points. Here is the summary. A young boy moves from London to live with his father during World War II. He moves there to escape the bombing of London, but soon learns that Burma has it's own set of wartime problems. The Japanese have come, some believe as liberators others as conquerors. Of course they proved themselves to worse than the English Imperialists.

The Young boy, Nick, is the son of the owner of a large tree plantation where they use elephants to help them with the harvesting of the trees. This is where the cultural lessons come. When the Japanese come, they take his father as a prisoner of war, and Nick stays at the plantations home as a servant. There is a deal made to help keep the prisoners compliant, but the Japanese re neg on that deal. After that is realized, Nick plans his escape with the help of an ancient, revered monk and the young daughter of one of the killed elephant trainers, who happened to be close to the father. After his escape, they plan to rescue the father which proves to be exceedingly difficult because he's an enemy and they are guarded and treated much worse than their Burmese counterparts. The Burmese are treated slightly better, but they have more freedoms.

One thing I liked about the book is that one of the Japanese soldiers is portrayed as a very humane, sympathetic character. In other words, not all the Japanese were monsters. That's an important concept I believe since the Japanese were known for their ruthlessness and ferocity. It makes them seem more human.