Faithful Elephants

Faithful Elephants, written by Yuko Tsuchiya, translated by Tomoko Tsuchiya Dykes, and illustrated by Ted Lewin, is a story about the affects of World War II on animals. I think that talking to kids about how war effects the citizens of countries at war is one view of war for kids to try and understand, but when animals are deliberately left to die in a war in which they have no part in, I think that is what will really touch kids. It is just absolutely heart breaking as the war goes on, how the zoo keepers are unable to keep feeding the animals. Eventually the elephants are so starved they die, in the position of a famous trick that they were taught in order to receive food. Even as an adult there are so many questions and discussions on the ethics of war that I long to have with another person, and this book is a great jumping off point for those kinds of discussions. This is a really difficult book to read with kids, but the most important lesson that I would try to get my kids to understand is that there are multiple perspectives in times of war, sometimes war hurts those who have nothing to do with the war, maybe get into ethics if the class stayed respectful of one anothers' view points.