Stories Aloud
Chaya, a no-nonsense, outspoken hero, leads her friends and a gorgeous elephant on a noisy, fraught, joyous adventure through the jungle where revolution is stirring and leeches lurk. Will stealing the queen’s jewels be the beginning or the end of everything for the intrepid gang? With cover illustration by David Dean.
The Girl Who Stole an Elephant is as rich, dazzling and alluring as a pouchful of royal jewels, and as triumphant as a trumpeting elephant! I loved it. – Sophie Anderson, author of The House with Chicken Legs
A glorious fast-paced adventure through the jungle. I love Chaya’s spirit and determination and the friendships that are built along the way. I feel I am there with Chaya and her friends. The Girl Who Stole an Elephant is adventuring at its best; a mystery, a jewel thief, and an escape into the jungle with an elephant at your side. – Gill Lewis, author of Sky Hawk
Chaya, schoolgirl by day, thief by night, will steal your heart in this incredibly assured debut that’s packed with adventure, friendship, and loyalty. – Aisha Bushby, author of A Pocketful of Stars
This exciting debut, set on the lush island of ancient Sri Lanka, introduces us to a kick-ass heroine in Chaya, a young girl who robs the rich to help the poor in local villages Richly atmospheric, full of colour and passion, Farook is a writer to watch. – Sally Morris, Daily Mail
Farook embeds her message in a cracking narrative and never lets us feel we’re being preached to. Farook does not beat around the bush. Chaya looked at the bronze spear pointing at her neck, reads the novel’s first sentence and in the ensuing 48 chapters, the pace rarely slackens. But she allows every character time to unravel, resulting in a deceptively dense adventure that will appeal to readers well into their teens. – Emily Bearn, Telegraph
The Girl Who Stole an Elephant positively rustles with the textures of rural Sri Lanka. It introduces an author keen to write a love letter to her culture, and upend preconceptions too More like this, please. – Observer
Farook’s dazzling debut novel follows the stubborn jewel thief Chaya, her friends and the titular elephant through the Sri Lankan jungle in a beautifully paced story of friendship and revolution. – i
Readers can still travel to new and exciting places from home with a great adventure story, like The Girl Who Stole an Elephant by Nizrana Farook. Set in Sri Lanka, this debut novel follows Chaya, who has a habit of stealing to help those in need, but taking the queen’s jewels and the royal elephant means that she’s now a target and needs to escape into the jungle. The vivid setting and fast-paced plot will have you captivated until the final page. – Scotsman
