The Elephant Heist
A classic middle-grade adventure written with sensitivity and poignancy – Kesia Lupo, Senior Editor, Chicken House Publishing
Deft at handling snakes, finding his way through the forest, and collecting honey from hives, Heera – a tribal boy in colonial India – is well-adapted to the jungle. Saving the life of an elephant calf in his early childhood years earns him the friendship and trust of the animal whom he names Bali. But when Bali is captured during shikar, Heera’s world turns upside down. He vows to free Bali but little does he know, he is head-to-head with a sinister and powerful enemy who speaks a foreign tongue and his quest to free Bali will cause him to stumble upon a collateral truth that will change his life forever.
With no friends and family, apart from his mother who wants him to abandon his quest, will Heera succeed?
Longlisted – 2020 The Times/Chicken House Competition
Rucha Dixit
As a child, Rucha Dixit loved exploring nature and wildlife whether in her garden in India or during her summer holidays at her grandmother’s home in a small town in central India. She realised her love for writing as a teen. After arriving in the UK in her early twenties, thirteen years in the software industry and having both her children, she finally dived straight in to write fiction and poetry for children. Since then, she has been published in American anthologies for children.
The Elephant Heist is her debut middle-grade historical fiction novel that converges her passion for writing and her experiences in India. Rucha received an honorary mention at the SCBWI BAME Scholarship Awards in 2019.
Rucha lives with her husband and two children in Surrey.