Grief and Giving and the Magic of Elephants
Author: Susan R. Greenway
The world will never be the same for 12-year-old Quinn. Her mother recently died in a skiing accident, and everything is colored with loneliness and guilt. Her mother wouldn’t have been there if Quinn hadn’t wanted to ski. If Quinn hadn’t been running behind, she is sure that her mother would have survived.
To help her grieving niece, Quinn’s aunt takes her to Thailand to spend one summer working at an elephant sanctuary. But Quinn is distraught to learn about the abuse the elephants experienced before being rescued and brought to the sanctuary. She wants to go home. But one day, as Quinn is crying by herself, a brave elephant comes and rests its trunk on her shoulder. If this brutalized beast can find the ability to go on, to try again, to find forgiveness and meaning, maybe Quinn can too. When a recently orphaned baby elephant who won’t eat is welcomed into the sanctuary, Quinn feels a kinship, a calling. In helping this young elephant find the will to live again, Quinn herself starts to see the possibilities.
Elephant Touch is both hard and beautiful in equal measures. A middle-school book, it steers away from the fully depressive immersion of death and survivor’s guilt, yet still gives keen, painful insights from a child’s perspective that are heart-wrenching and accurate without ever becoming too much. Author Susan R. Greenway addresses the seriousness of the topic, while still promoting hope through healthy grieving and meaningful actions.
Sumana, the beautiful elephant who was much abused and yet, despite her rough start, has found peace and gentleness, begins the healing process by reaching out to a conflicted and grieving Quinn. The moment is brief, but powerful, and from there, the story starts to morph. There are dark feelings, secrets (Quinn is sure that she is responsible for her mother’s death), and moments of backtracking and anger, yet Sumana’s growth and patience lead Quinn to accept and eventually give hope.
Image by Mia-Maria Wikström from Pixabay
When dealing with the baby elephant, Quinn grows most. She starts to see herself and her situation from the outside and becomes open to experiencing the love that has led her family to help her heal. It’s profound yet crafted in the way that a middle schooler can understand, applying the bigger concepts while still enjoying what is a very emotive and engaging story.
Greenway populates Elephant Touch with fascinating details about Thailand, the elephants, the food, and the cultural practices. It’s enough to make us adults remember the childhood charm of such books – the possibilities of all the things on this earth to see and do and the awesome animals that populate it. I, as a child, would have loved and been fascinated by the cultural and geographical elements as well as the ways of the gentle giants and how people can help to take care of and rehabilitate elephants.
In the end, Quinn learns about death, grieving, acceptance, friendship, family, and doing something for community and animals. She finds a way to move on, without ever losing the love for the person who was lost. She learns how to successfully deal with false feelings of blame and survivor’s guilt. It’s a story that will break your heart, but also one that will give you hope. You’ll at times want to weep and at other times get in the kitchen with the volunteers and prepare a mountain of fruit in the festering sun for the elephants who can be heard trumpeting in the distance.
– Frances Carden
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