Tamburlaine's Elephants

Description

Rusti is a Mongol warrior, fighting for the bloodthirsty Tamburlaine, Conqueror of the World. He intends to show the enemy neither fear nor mercy... until he comes face-to-face with his first elephant.Kavi is the elephant's rider. Captured by the terrifying Mongol Horde, he fears for his life. But the boy who takes him prisoner does not kill him. And soon it seems they might almost become...friends.Then Rusti uncovers a terrible secret, and the unlikeliest of friendships is put to the ultimate test.

Geraldine McCaughrean is one of today's most successful and highly regarded children's authors. She has won the Carnegie Medal, the Whitbread Children's Book Award three times, the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, the Smarties Bronze Award four times, the prestigious U.S. Printz Award and the Blue Peter Book of the Year Award. She was chosen to write the official sequel to J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan, Peter Pan in Scarlet, which was published to wide critical acclaim. Geraldine lives in Berkshire with her husband John and the lingering shades of all those characters she has invented in her books. Author location: Berkshire

'Truly memorable, beautifully written and unreservedly recommended' - Books for Keeps; 'Everything Geraldine McCaughrean touches turns to gold. After her triumphant sequel to Peter Pan, she has returned to writing in her own voice, on top form...This is a story full of irony - and subtlety beyond its apparent simplicity - about a friendship between enemies, about innocence lost, about old secrets and revenge, and about the real meaning of war' - The Sunday Times; 'This is a breathtaking tale. Effortlessly, convincingly the author explores the customs, the language and the fabric of the period so that we almost become a part of the unfolding action' - Carousel; 'Geraldine McCaughrean is an awe-inspiring writer with a miraculous talent for bringing to life past times and faraway lands' - Sunday Telegraph; 'Geraldine McCaughrean's gift for memorable descriptive language is strongly present in this latest work, alongside plenty of humour and a gripping plot. Strongly recommended' - School Librarian Journal; 'This is another amazing book from Geraldine McCaughrean whose writing covers a fantastic range of times and settings but who always delights with stunning prose and wonderful stories' - Boys into Books; 'The account is wholly convincing, the detail superbly observed...Grippingly atmospheric history and a marvellous read' - National Association of Teachers Magazine; 'Geraldine McCaughrean is a genius in her ability to draw the reader in to a part of history that might not immediately spring to mind as being of interest and yet she makes you hungry for more. Here, she draws upon a violent period of India's history and interplays that history with a wonderful friendship that develops despite horrific dangers. The characters are brilliantly drawn and the sights and smells of time and place are so well described you feel you are there, on the battlefield, on the plains and in the cities' - Lovereading4kids