This unusual story about the people and animals of a small US town in 1968 is narrated by a 10 year old British girl. It was funny, fantastic and touching. ( )

There are a few glaring errors that have twice stopped me reading in mid sentence. First is the Pledge of Allegiance which is misquoted. The second is the mentioning of the Brady Bunch being on in early summer of 1968. It didn't start airing until September of the next year. There are also some instances of Britishisms being spoken by American characters. None of these things would bother me if the story wasn't priding itself on getting the details right.

I enjoyed the book up until the last twenty pages. I don't particularly like the ending. It felt rushed and forced. I especially didn't like what happened to Perry but then I'm a mother of a kid his age.

I wish the the author hadn't stated that it was 1968. If she had been vaguer about when exactly the book takes place, it would have been better. There are some pop culture references that she gets wrong that could have slid if it didn't have to be the summer of 1968. ( )

This is a charming book that is amusing in parts however the story is just not compelling. Toksvig created good characters that were very well written, but I found myself just trying to get through the book rather than enjoying the read. ( )

This is a comming of age book based arround the life of a girl. Reading between the lines the father, who was very rich had lost the finantial clout that he had, leading them to have to settle down. For some reason despore being english this was in an americal town, though this girl from the life she led would be as out of place anywhere they decided to settle.
As in introduction to what i would think of as a normal life there was much changing happening at this time in america, the vietnem war, civil rights and womens rights and this girl had to find out about all of these things and have an opinion.
The people that she met were all as misterious to her, whether we would think of them as noraml or not. there are some strange people too.
It was a good read that kept me engaged in the story ( )

It was always the cover that attracted me to this book. Although I bought it as part of a collection the cover stood out a mile, after all it is bright orange. The vividness and uniqueness of the cover completely matches the characters though - not the narrator Dorothy but rather the group of women living in the zoo she comes across. The opening section of this novel left me initially wondering if I was going to enjoy it. However it did set the scene for the relationships within Dorothy’s family and left me knowing why (and how) she became the child she was. At only 10, she was an amazingly resilient child.

My only experience (as I have seen many reviewers on the internet say) of Sandi Toksvig is from seeing her on comedy shows or as a child watching her in a programme from the 1980s called ‘Number 73’. I had doubts whether her entertaining wit would come through in the writing and I felt it would be a disappointment if it didn’t. I was hoping she wouldn’t digress too much from what I already enjoyed her for. She didn’t. I wasn’t disappointed. In fact, I was blown away.

The prose is outstanding and her writing aroused such an emotion in me by the end I almost wanted to cheer and I certainly had a lump in my throat followed by a tear in my eye. The story is about Dorothy essentially but the addition of the elephants towards the end transfixed me. I was mesmerised by every word Toksvig used and the elephants came alive on the page in front of me. Feminist principles are at the heart of this novel and I felt myself become enthused by what I was reading, I particularly loved the corset scenes!

Whilst reading, I was reminded of Angela Carter’s ‘Nights at the Circus’ particularly the similarities in some aspects between Dorothy from Toksvig’s book and Fevvers from Carter’s book. That one is also worth a read and has stuck in my mind over the years. I can’t recommend ‘Whistling for the Elephants’ enough and I will be telling everyone how wonderful it is. It is sure to be on my top ten reads of 2011. ( )