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Summary
Summary
Fans of Kate DiCamillo and Katherine Applegate will warm to this story of an orphan and an elephant who band together to save a lovelorn town, relying on an eccentric crew and a couple of miracles along the way.
Nitty Luce is an orphan--and a thief. Magnolious is an elephant--and a fugitive. When the two misfits come face to face in the middle of a blinding dust storm, they form an immediate bond.
But with Nitty hiding a stolen pouch of gleaming green seeds and Mag mere moments from being hanged, the two don't have much time to get to know each other. Escaping into the storm, they end up on a barren farm in Fortune's Bluff, a town withered by a decade of dust storms. While most would be deterred by the farm's curmudgeonly owner, Windle Homes, Nitty sees past his harsh exterior. She promises to bring the farm back to life--with the help of Mag and those little green seeds.
Soon enough, Nitty and Mag are harvesting their first crop, and they're quickly the talk of the town. But as the townspeople become hopeful, the Mayor Neezer Snollygost becomes suspicious.
Will Nitty and Mag be able to save Fortune's Bluff and make a new, safe home for themselves? Doing so might just take a miracle. . . .
Author Notes
Suzanne Nelson is a former children's book editor. She is the author of Serendipity's Footsteps, published by Knopf BFYR in 2015, as well as many paperback originals, including C ake Pop Crush . She lives with her family in Ridgefield, Connecticut. Find out more about Suzanne at suzannenelson.com and follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @snelsonbooks and @suzannenelsonbooks, respectively.
Reviews (3)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 5 Up-The whimsical tale of an orphan and elephant who, together, bring hope and change to a town in dire need of wonder. It all begins when 10-year-old orphan Nitty steals a pouch of unusual glowing green seeds. Moments later, Nitty makes a split-second decision to free Magnolious, an ex-circus elephant about to be executed for allegedly killing her trainer. Together, Nitty and "Mag" escape to Fortune's Bluff, a town on the edge of destruction due to intense and unceasing dust storms. There, they help a curmudgeonly farmer bring life back to his barren fields and team up with new friends to unravel the mystery surrounding the town's dust storms. Though comparisons to Katherine Applegate's The One and Only Ivan are inevitable, this novel merits praise in its own right. Nelson effortlessly weaves together the historical context of the Dust Bowl with elements of fantasy and adventure to create a wholly original setting. While readers will empathize with Nitty and Mag, who have each experienced hurt and loneliness at the hands of those who are meant to care for them, it is the eccentric troupe of supporting characters who stand out: Twitch, the endearing novice detective whose habitual wheeze usually blows his cover; Ferdinand, the dejected mustache-maker who believes in the life-changing power of refined facial hair; and Neezeer Snollygost, the ravenous and untrustworthy town mayor with a whistling nose. VERDICT Readers will be delighted by this effervescent story full of adventure, heart, and a dash of magic.-Lauren Hathaway, University of British Columbia © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
An orphan girl during the Dust Bowl steals an elephant, some magical seeds, and a cantankerous old man's heart.Nitty's starving since she's run away from Grimsgate Orphanage, where she's spent all of her 10 years, but she'll take hunger outside over abuse inside any day. She's no thief, but when she sees the gorgeous, glowing, green seeds for sale on the tinker's wagon, she can't resist swiping the bag. She flees town in a dust storm, taking refuge with the "Great Magnolious," an abused circus elephant scheduled to be hanged in a "spectacle never to be forgotten." The pair finds shelter in cranky Windle's barn, quickly warming his heart. Despite friendship (Windle is joined in Nitty's found family by Twitch, a boy with dust pneumonia), all is not well in tiny, poverty-stricken Fortune's Bluff. The townspeople are deeply in debt to "dastardly" Mayor Snollygost for food and medicines, and it's funny how the dust storms seem to strike whenever the mayor is angry at someone. Will the magical crop from Nitty's little cache of stolen seeds help them save the day? Nitty loves words, and Nelson's prose rises to the occasion, spooling out gorgeous sentences. Twitch has brown skin while almost everyone else is either undescribed or clearly white, but even the villains in this 1930s American town seem inexplicably oblivious to race.A beautifully written fantasy allegory with comic grace notes. (Fantasy. 9-11) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
After summoning the courage to escape Grimsgate Orphanage, Nitty Luce wanders into a neighboring town, where she notices a chained circus elephant, Magnolious, awaiting being hanged. As the crowd jeers at the poor creature, Nitty steals some bright emerald-colored seeds from a cart and hides between Mag's front legs. She senses fear and longing in Mag just like her own. Nitty encourages Mag to break her chains and the two escape amid a dust storm. Tired, hungry, and thirsty, they finally collapse in a barn. Windle, the farm's owner, however, is kind and even indulges Nitty's desire to plant the seeds. They grow and produce fruit, despite Fortune's Bluff's desolation, made worse by the sinister mayor's dust-making machine. Amateur sleuth Twitch, Nitty, and their friend set out to trap the mayor and save Fortune's Bluff. This beautiful story, set during the Dust Bowl, shows the power of hope and love even in dire circumstances. Nelson's ingenious young characters, wise adults, enriched vocabulary, tongue-in-cheek humor, and understanding of the elephants' feelings make this perfect for reading aloud.--J. B. Petty Copyright 2019 Booklist