Inspiration for Elephant Touch by Susan R. Greenway

My debut middle grade novel, Elephant Touch, was initially inspired by one amazing moment in Thailand. My husband and I were visiting friends in Thailand and went to an elephant show. While we were waiting to be admitted to the arena, we watched some elephants bathe in a river. Behind us was a corral of elephants. My phone rang, an unusual event since I was out-of-country. It was my sister, calling from California. I backed up to the corral fence for some privacy. My mother had passed away. 

As I cried, three elephants crossed the corral to my location. One of them put its trunk on my shoulder. I was stunned by the elephant’s compassion. How could an elephant know to comfort me this way? 

That event was the beginning of my quest to learn more about Asian elephants. What I discovered both delighted and saddened my heart. One of the joys was reading accounts of many elephant-human relationships from way back in time with some very close bonds of mutual understanding. It’s not really that surprising, if you think about it. Elephants are highly intelligent beings as evidenced by their use of tools from nature, by their display of the emotions of grief, compassion, and playfulness, and their ability to learn over one hundred verbal commands. They have a viable social structure and communicate vocally. In many ways, they are capable of sharing the same companionship with humans as do dogs and horses. This is often exhibited in their relationships with their caretakers or mahouts, who generally stay with their elephants for life. 

I was greatly saddened to learn of the history of elephant abuse that still continues. Many if not most of the elephants used for tourism and for logging or transport have been trained by the use of mental and/or physical abuse. Additionally, many elephants have been killed for their ivory tusks and skin. Asian elephants have become an endangered species. At this point in time, there are estimated to be less than 50,000 Asian elephants in the wild remaining in Asia and China combined (https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/tackling-critical-threats-facing-asian-elephants).

The major causes of their endangered status are the loss of habitat for the elephants due to deforestation, and the fragmentation of their social structure. Larger populations of elephants have been reduced to small isolated ones. Also, the human-elephant conflict over space remains an unsolved problem. Elephants have been used for logging, transport, warfare, and entertainment for generations. When Thailand outlawed logging in 1989, many mahouts had no way of paying for the enormous amounts of food that their elephants required to live. Some took their elephants to cities where the elephants were forced to walk on hot pavement streets as their mahouts begged for money. Others put them to work in shows for tourists. While there are some wonderful organizations such as World Wildlife Foundation that are working to solve these problems, there is still much work to be done. 

On our next trip to Thailand, we visited an elephant sanctuary. At this particular sanctuary, I was able to observe the strong bonds between the mahouts and their elephants. There was such trust and affection. It was just the way you’d hope it would be.

Most sanctuaries are ethical and exist to protect the elephants. They can be places of refuge for abused elephants, for elephants whose mahouts no longer can afford to feed them, and for those needing medical care. Sanctuaries vary in their purpose and emphasis. Some are able to purchase vast amounts of acres where the elephants may roam freely and forage for food. This is a win-win situation because in the process of foraging, elephants enrich the natural growth of plants and trees and help develop access to dense forests for other animals.

After our visit to the sanctuary, I began to ask a fiction writer’s question, ‘What if…?” What if a young girl experienced a great loss and was exposed to elephants at a sanctuary? What if she developed a relationship with an elephant in the process? What if that began to help her heal? What if some other volunteers were part of her healing? 

What inspired me to write this book? It was the elephants: their magnificence, beauty, strength, and emotions. Ever since my own incredible ‘touched-by-an-elephant’ experience, I’ve become an enthusiastic fan and advocate for elephants. 

But equally important as a reason to write this story is the growing loss of hope I see among young people. The experience of loss is universal. Perhaps because of the constant onslaught of social media, young people are exposed to loss over and over again in addition to what they experience in their personal lives. Too many suffer from depression, trauma, anxiety, and grief. I wanted to write a book that would address their experience of loss so that they might know they’re not alone, and so that they might realize that love and hope can come into their lives in the most unexpected ways. Maybe even through a relationship with an animal.

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Susan R. Greenway is a former elementary school teacher and reading specialist. She is a longtime member of SCBWI (Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators) and a graduate of the University of Washington Writing for Children Program. Elephant Touch is her debut novel, inspired by an extraordinary experience she had with an elephant in Thailand.

Susan is an outdoor and dog enthusiast and lives with her husband and their sweet dog, Willow, in Washington.

ELEPHANT TOUCH

For fans of Sara Pennypacker’s Pax and Ali Benjamin’s The Thing About Jellyfish, Elephant Touch is a contemporary middle grade novel about overcoming grief that will touch the hearts of its readers.

Since the sudden loss of her mother, Quinn has been inconsolable. Her aunt brings her to volunteer at a Thai elephant sanctuary, hoping it will be a healing experience—but when Quinn learns about the previous abuse of the elephants she’s there to help, she’s overcome with even more grief.

While crying alone by the river one day, Quinn has a magical encounter with an adult elephant. She marvels at the elephant’s show of compassion, and they develop a strong connection. But when an orphaned baby elephant, also grieving her mother’s death, arrives at the sanctuary in fragile health, Quinn is afraid to get involved. To help save the baby elephant’s life, she must be courageous and use her newfound ability to connect with the elephants—not to mention accept the support of her new human friends. If she can channel her grief into action, she just might find the community and support she’s been missing. But can she find the courage to do it?

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Category: On Writing