The Magician's Elephant by Kate DiCamillo

It's one animal after another, to the point where sometimes I wonder if I could even write a book without an animal showing up. Kate DiCamillo: I do it unwittingly, and I do it ad nauseam, as well. Why is this such a common direction in your stories? Is it personal to your own experience?

Victoria Davis: Kate, one thing I've always been enchanted by with your books is how you use a child's connection with an animal to help them work through and process things that are happening in the world around them. We got the chance to talk with the award-winning author about her journey as a writer, her infatuation with animals as guides in life, and got the inside scoop from Rogers and Pistor on how they went about building the magical realism of The Magician's Elephant. The book became required reading for many grade schools and, for over two decades, DiCamillo has stuck with her winning formula: a child, an animal, and a little bit of magic. When Peter (voiced by Honey Boy’s Noah Jupe), crosses paths with a fortune teller in the market square, there is only one question on his mind: is his sister still alive? The answer – that he must follow a mysterious elephant – sets Peter off on a remarkable journey to complete three seemingly impossible tasks that magically change the face of (and give hope to) his entire town along the way.ĭirected by Puss in Boots’ visual effects supervisor extraordinaire Wendy Rogers, The Magician’s Elephant is produced by The Spiderwick Chronicles’ Julia Pistor and animated by the creative studio Animal Logic, known for their work on Happy Feet, The Lego Movie, Peter Rabbit and DC League of Super-Pets.ĭiCamillo’s writing career kicked off after she moved to Minnesota, publishing her first novel, “Because of Winn-Dixie,” in 2000. The author’s second book to be turned into a 3DCG feature – following The Tale of Despereaux – the film centers around a young orphan named Peter, who is searching for his long-lost sister. The Magician’s Elephant – adapted, coincidentally, from DiCamillo’s fifth published novel – premieres on the streaming giant Friday, March 17. More specifically, a master in the art of creating symbolic, life-affirming core animal characters in all her stories.ĭiCamillo has published more than 25 novels, including “Because of Winn-Dixie,” “The Tiger Rising,” “The Tale of Despereaux,” “The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane,” “The Magician's Elephant,” the “Mercy Watson” series, and “Flora & Ulysses.” She is one of only six authors to be awarded two Newbery Medals and four of her books have been developed into films, with a fifth feature adaptation now launching on Netflix. For the last 23 years, author Kate DiCamillo has been a champion of children’s literature.

The Magician's Elephant by Kate DiCamillo