The Copper Elephant

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The Copper Elephant
The Copper Elephant.jpg
First edition
Author Adam Rapp
Cover artistHelen Robinson
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre Young adult novel
Published1999
PublisherBoyd Mills Press
Media typePrint
Pages228
ISBN 0-06-447261-2

The Copper Elephant is a young adult science fiction novel by Adam Rapp. It was published 2 November 1999 by Front Street, an imprint of Boyds Mills Press.

Contents

The story is told from the perspective of an eleven-year-old girl, Whensday Bluehouse. She lives in a future ruled by a fascist regime that employs child slave labor. She is on the verge of starvation throughout most of the book, and the future is bleak.

Library of Congress CPD Summary: "In a world where children under twelve are used as slave labor in subterranean lime mines, eleven-year-old Whensday Bluehouse struggles to survive the continuous poison rains and evade the ruthless Syndicate soldiers." [1]

Background

Adam Rapp stated in an interview that the book was based on his dissatisfaction with capitalism and America's "obsession with commerce" and the negative effects of the industrial revolution. It inspired by him seeing "American Embassy soldiers torturing a child in South Africa, which made him interested in writing about how kids were treated. [2]

Character List

Plot

Whensday Bluehouse is an orphan who was rescued from a life working in the Pits by coffin maker Tick Burrowman. Burrowman is attempting to make a profit by selling Whensday to a woman from Toptown, a part of the world that is unaffected by acid rain and life on The Shelf. Whensday is unsure of the security of this exchange, and sneaks away one night. Burrowman may have actually grown fond of Whensday, and it is unclear if he is interested in giving her away after all.

While Whensday is on the run, she stumbles upon a large, mentally handicapped teenager named Honeycut Greenhouse, obviously another orphan. He was separated from his brother, much as Whensday was, and it is obvious that Honeycut doesn't have the faculties to take care of himself. Whensday decides to befriend Honeycut, and he rescues her during a vicious rape by Second Staff Brown, a minor officer in the military. Honeycut kills Brown, and a manhunt begins, ending with Honeycut's capture.

Whensday flees and hides in the only place she knows, Tick Burrowman's home. Upon her arrival, she finds him dead, and a former friend, Joe Painter, seriously ill. They cobble together a flotilla of "body boxes" and attempt to paddle up the river, away from the Shelf and the head for Toptown. But Joe Painter dies on the trip, and the current carries Whensday back to the shelf. She is rescued by a secret clan of women, hiding from the Syndicate, and she stays with them.

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References

  1. Rapp, Adam. The Copper Elephant. New York: HarperTempest, 2002. Print.
  2. "E-view with Adam Rapp". The ALAN Review. Retrieved 31 March 2010.