Zoe H.

Zoë Hutcher
Water for Elephants
Sarah Gruen
Realistic fiction
Challenge
Page 327

1. Right now in the book Jacob and Marlena are trying to think of an idea of how to travel with their elephant and horses. They have these animals now because their show was shut down and when other circuses came to take these animals they said that they owned them so that they could keep them. They wanted to keep the animals because they felt a connection with them. They are going to find another circus to work on because Marlena is pregnant. Also, Jacobs’s friends Walter and Camel were both fired. When actors are fired from this show actors are thrown off the train in the middle of the night while it is moving.
2. At this point in the book I think that it is very interesting and different. I think that this book is interesting because it is not a book that you would read everyday. Most books are about love and romance and teenagers etc. but this book is about the life of a man who is in the circus. These aspects make the book very different. I also think that the book is a page-turner because there are so many little events going on with everyone that you want to know how it ends. There are two downsides to this book. The first is that it is confusing because the book is about a man thinking back on memories so he will come in and out of his memories. The second downside to the book is that it is graphic because it puts some images in your head that you don’t want to think about.
3. In the book the theme is trust. I see the theme of trust because Jacob and Marlena have to trust each other to know that they both will try as hard as they can to find a job. Another place that I see trust is when Camel was first paralyzed he had to trust Walter and Jacob to bring him food. He also had to trust them not to tell anyone that they were hiding him in their bunk. If they told that they were hiding Camel he would have been thrown off the train.
4. My favorite character is Rosie the elephant because I love animals and Rosie is an elephant. Another reason is that Rosie is the star of the show and she is the reason that everyone wants to come. Also, she is cheery and even though August her trainer used to beat her, she was still cheery and happy. I like that she is very cheery because it makes the people in the story happier.
5. The person I like the least is August. I like him the least because he beat up Marlena. He got mad at her and punched her in the eye. I also don’t like him because when he got frustrated with Rosie he too the bull hook and hit her multiple time. The last reason that I don’t like him is because he is very aggressive and when something does not go his way he tends to either yell at them or have a physical fight with them.
6. My prediction for what is going to happen next in the book is that Marlena and Jacob are going to find a place for everyone (including animals) to go. I think they will probably end up going to another circus where their new child will probably be born. I also think that Jacob is going to have to face Camels son and tell him that he died. That will be very hard for Jacob because it took everything they had to just get the son to talk to them let alone take in Camel.