Clara: The (Mostly) True Story of a Rhinoceros Who Dazzled Kings, Inspired Artists, and Won the Hearts of Everyone … While She Ate Her Way Up and Down a Continent! by Emily Arnold McCully (review)
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- Clara: The (Mostly) True Story of a Rhinoceros Who Dazzled Kings, Inspired Artists, and Won the Hearts of Everyone … While She Ate Her Way Up and Down a Continent! by Emily Arnold McCully
Library ed. ISBN 978-0-553-52247-1 $20.99
Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-553-52246-4 $17.99
E-book ed. ISBN 978-0-553-52248-8 $10.99 Ad 6-9 yrs
In the mid-eighteenth century, an orphaned baby Indian rhinoceros was adopted by Dutch merchant Douwe Mout van der Meer, and the pair embarked on a whirlwind show-and-tell tour of Europe, to the delight of European audiences. A rhino was a novelty in that time and place, and Clara was purportedly a docile and enchanting ambassador for the species. McCully is upfront, in the title and in the closing authorial note, about the poetic license she has taken in her literary recreation of this relationship, but it’s not always clear which textual details are fact and which are fiction (for example, did Clara really enjoy drinking beer?). She also sometimes gets carried away, anthropomorphically speaking, in her portrayal of Clara: “Clara was hoisted slowly onto Van der Meer’s ship. It must have been frightening, but she trusted the captain.” McCully’s pen and ink and watercolor illustrations ably convey the formality of the period (kids will get a kick out of all the wigs, especially those created to imitate Clara’s horned head) while the casual strokes keep the action down to earth, and the seemingly smiling Clara is a winning, personable figure. A list of resources and two maps depicting Clara’s travels are included. Pair this with [End Page 584] Cox’s Elizabeth, Queen of the Sea (BCCB 7/14) for another fictionalized true story of a community’s relationship with a captivating creature.
