Published on May 8, 2012, author Lynne Kelly astonishes us all with an incredible story set in India about Hastin, a 10-year-old boy, and Nandita, a baby elephant, living in the true harsh and unfair ways of life in the novel Chained.
If there is one beautiful thing that human nature has given us, it is the will to do good for others. Chained is about a boy named Hastin who had lost his father, Baba, to an illness, when he was younger leaving him, his younger sister, Chanda, and his mother, Amma, without the shield and father figure of the family. Sacrifice, commitment, and love take Hastin to a level no 10-year-old boy should have to live through, as he takes charge of his family after Chanda grows ill, and his mother is forced to work as a servant for a man who has agreed to help pay for Hastin’s sister’s hospital bills.
After seeing the way Amma was being treated, Hastin would decide to help work off the debt. Hastin takes on a job in the faraway jungles at a circus as an elephant keeper and before he knows it, he realizes he has been trapped and misguided by the cruel circus owner, but he was not the only one. Hastin falls in love with his baby elephant naming her Nandita and protecting her from the cruelty.
Hastin would spend countless hours teaching Nandita to do tricks to prevent her from being tortured if she failed to do the tricks in front of the owner. Hastin realizes this is no place for an elephant or any animal for that matter. Will they both survive long enough to escape and see their families once again?
Inspired by the true ways of a young Indian boy and animal cruelty, Lynne Kelly combines the perfect duo of two different species who want the same things; To survive and be surrounded by their families. 248 pages filled with the heart full human spirit, Lynne Kelly writes a juvenile fiction story to remind the world what being human means. If you’re anything like me, sometimes you want to read about elephants in captivity and heroic kids.
Although Chained is aimed for the middle school age, I gladly encourage adults to engage in this wonderful story that Kelly has written. You will not find a single rating website that will give this book less than four stars. Although discretion is advised for children under 13 as many would say that the story is summed up with poverty, childhood diseases, slavery, classism, families being broken apart, animal cruelty, and child slavery. Most reviewers, who I may add are well full grown adults, fell in love and quote on quote, say Chained will be on the library’s most requested list.
Kelly did a wonderful job by portraying the personalities of each character including Nandita. Each scene is perfectly detailed and unfolds to a plot that will satisfy the reader. For the first book of Kelly, she truly does not disappoint on her debut. Chained will have you emotionally all over the place. For the very beginning, you will root for Hastin and fall in love with his courage.
