My Travels with Clara

This book is a treasure! It promotes an appreciation of not only the rewarding act of loving an animal as a member of one's own family, but also the idea that antiques or "old things" can have a fascinating story to tell. Done in scrapbook-style with cursive writing, drawings, and real photographs of objects pertaining to Clara's Grand Tour through Europe. Enjoy!

The friend who recommended this book told me that if I bought it, I'd want to keep it for myself instead of passing it on to a child, & she was right. Not only is the tale itself a marvel--the true story of a rhinoceros who is adopted by a Dutch sea captain, sails around the world, and becomes a celebrity throughout eighteenth-century Europe--but the writing is tremendously graceful, and the illustrations are divine. Clara the rhino is as endearing as any of the great critters of children's literature, from Babar to Olivia to the Velveteen Rabbit. In the end, I fell so in love with her that I couldn't, as my friend warned, part with the book once I bought it. But I've since purchased several other copies--for both the adults and children in my life--and Clara's travels have enchanted them all.