What if you had never seen an elephant before?  In the days of books, the Internet and camera phones, it's weird to fathom what it would be like not to have seen exotic animals. But in Victorian England, many people hadn't ever seen tigers, elephants or giraffes.  In fact, one artist, Albrecht Dürer, even made a print of a rhinoceros based on a description from a friend in a letter.

Kate Dicamillo's new book, The Magician's Elephant, describes a first look at an exotic animal as an elephant comes crashing through the theater ceiling. This surprising elephant brings together a group of characters from unrelated walks of life for some very extraordinary situations.  And by the end, Kate Dicamillo shows how magic can be tucked away in the strangest places.
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If you like The Magician's Elephant, you might also enjoy other books with mysterious animals in them:

1. Cock-A-Doodle MOOOOO! A Mixed up Menagerie by Keith DuQuette
2. The Wolves of Willoughby Hills by Joan Aiken
3. Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater
4. The Giraffe That Walked to Paris by Nancy Milton