Do you know how elephants are really treated in the circus? In this book "Chained" by Lynne Kelly that is exactly what it is talking about. The book is set in India in recent times. The book is about a Hastin’s sister Chanda being sick and his mother has no money to take her to the hospital. They live in a hut in India with barely enough money to have food. Hastin’s and Chanda’s mother took Chanda to the hospital because Chanda was so sick. One conflict is their mother has no money to pay the doctors so she decides to work as a servant for a rich family to pay for the money for the hospital. Hastin wants to help get money so he gets a job too. Timir the person he works for is having Hastin be the elephant keeper at the circus. Hastin has to stay at the circus for one year to pay for the hospital. His first job is to catch an elephant. The second conflict is that days have past in the book and still their is no elephant. One night he heard an elephant fall into the trap that they set up. Hastin doesn't want to tell Timir because he is afraid he will hurt the elephant. Hastin named the baby elephant that he caught Nandita. Soon enough Timir finds out and gets the elephant out of the trap by using the bullhook that hurts the Nandita. I think the protagonist is Hastin because he likes the elephant and wants to save her. The antagonist is Timir because he doesn’t care about the elephant’s life. Timir hires a trainer and trains the elephant to do tricks. The trainer's name is Sharad. One day Nandita and Hastin wanted to go home so bad that they tried to escape. Sharad catches them and tries to stop them. The conflict where they try to solve the problem, is when Nandita almost escapes Sharad held up the bullhook and Nandita hit him before he hurt her. I recommend this book to anyone who like animals and to readers fifth grade and older.
Chained
By Lynne Kelly
| Interest Level | Reading Level | Reading A-Z | ATOS | Word Count |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grades 4 - 8 | Grade 5 | n/a | 4.7 | 56546 |
After ten-year-old Hastin's family borrows money to pay for his sister's hospital bill, he leaves his village in northern India to take a job as an elephant keeper and work off the debt. He thinks it will be an adventure, but he isn't prepared for the cruel circus owner. The crowds that come to the circus see a lively animal who plays soccer and balances on milk bottles, but Hastin sees Nandita, a sweet elephant and his best friend, who is chained when she's not performing and hurt with a hook until she learns tricks perfectly. Hastin protects Nandita as best as he can, knowing that the only way they will both survive is if he can find a way for them to escape.
Publisher: Square Fish
ISBN-13: 9781250073358
ISBN-10: 1250073359
Published on 2/23/2016
Binding: Paperback
Number of pages: 256