Reading Club:  Children's Literature | The Chained Elephant - Εικόνα

The Reading Club for young readers continues online in January, coordinated by the author Tasoula Eptakoili. 

The book that will inspire our second meeting is The Chained Elephant by Jorge Bucay

Each month, twenty members, aged 7 to 10 years old, get together to discover a new book! The young readers will have the opportunity to exchange impressions, feelings and thoughts, as well as to travel, with their imagination as the vehicle and the book of the month as their launch pad, into the exciting worlds that emerge from its pages. 

The book and its author

"Ever since I was young I have had a question: 
how can an animal as strong 
as a circus elephant 
be chained 
to such a small stick nailed to the sand?"

When he was young, the author Jorge Bucay often visited the circus with his father. Each time he saw the elephant taking part in the show, he was surprised by how it didn't realize its massive strength. And so he wrote this story, to remind us that we can change anything, as long as we want to!

Jorge Bucay was born and raised in Buenos Aires in Argentina, where he studied Medicine and Psychology. Until he received his degree, he did many different jobs: taxi driver, traveling salesman, even circus clown. He subsequently worked in hospitals and clinics. Once he decided to start writing, he saw more than twelve of his books translated into at least twenty languages and topping the bestsellers charts in every country. He presently works as a psychotherapist in Buenos Aires, where he lives with his wife and their two children. He teaches classes and seminars and gives lectures in America and Europe. He continues to write books, for children and adults, and loves the fairy tales of his childhood. He knows around 1,500 of them by heart!

Tasoula Eptakoili was born in 1968 in Samos, and grew up in Piraeus. She graduated from the Faculty of Classics of the University of Athens, but chose journalism over teaching. She has worked on the radio (Melodia FM and now ATHINA 9.84), newspapers and magazines. From 2003, she has worked as a writer for "Kathimerini" newspaper. She has authored the books: "My other whole" (Patakis, 2016), a personal account of loss, the poetry collection "The woman in the elevator" (Kastaniotis, 2018), as well as "Gourgouris" (Patakis, 2017), "Garis" (Patakis, 2019) and "The Flowering Teapot" (Kastaniotis, 2019) - stories for children, but not only. She recently released another book, "Do you see me?" (Kastaniotis, 2020), which she co-authored with Psychology professor Foteini Tsalikoglou. She also curates and presents the TV show "Shots with tails", stories of animal love and human kindness, on ERT2. She lives in Athens. 

Get ready for the Reading Club meeting

1. Use the following words to make a short story. Each member of the Book Club will read out their story on the day of our meeting. 
Life
Habit
Tied
Changing
Joy
Strength
Dreaming

2. Find out more about elephants, in books or on the internet. Make notes. Each member of the group will tell us what impressed them the most. 

3. Where could the elephant from the story be now? Don't tell us, draw it!
 

Reading Club:  Children's Literature
Sunday 24/01, 17.00

Zoom

For children aged 7 to 10 years old 
Up to 20 children

Free participations with online pre-registration

Coordinator: Tasoula Eptakoili

To take part in the Book Club, all registered participants are required to read the book of the month. 

"The Chained Elephant", illustrated by Gusti, is available in Greek translation from Opera Books. 
 

 

See also

Monday 25/01, 18:30

Reading Club: The Turn of the Screw

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Sunday 31/01, 13:00

Reading Club: Teen Book | The Boy in the Loge

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