The Runaways
England, 1917. The country is at war and more men are needed at the Front, so Cullen’s Circus must close and the animals be sold. But who will take Shanti, the Indian elephant, and her two-year-old baby, Tara? Mr Jones, who once worked with elephants in Ceylon, decides to buy Shanti to help him with the heavy work on his farm, now that the army has taken his horses.
Shanti and Tara are devastated to be parted. The old collie, Harvey, knows that Tara will die without her mother’s milk, so together they set out on a long trek through the Lake District to find her. But will they be in time?
Like Megan Rix’s previous books, The Runaways is loosely based on real-life stories of the courage and determination of animals in war-time who brave long journeys to reach their loved ones. She was inspired by an elephant who really did work on a farm in the early twentieth century. I particularly enjoyed learning about the ways in which elephants can communicate across huge distances, as Shanti and Tara try to do.
Children of 8+ who enjoy animal stories will enjoy this variation on Megan Rix’s usual animal journey theme.
Elizabeth Hawksley
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I absolutely loved this book; it was amazing! I thought the plot was really good and very interesting, I love the characters especially Tara, the cheeky baby elephant. It’s a very gripping story and it contains everything I love: Beatrix Potter, elephants, farms and sheep dogs! Although I think it’s amazing, I also think it could be improved by going into more depth about the human characters and maybe explain how or why they actually came across Tara and Harvey since, at the moment, it is quite vague. Lastly, I think the book could be prolonged a bit!
Louis McNulty, aged 12
