It’s December 1st already?! NaNo is over?!
How’d you do?
We have one final book to feature, possibly the most well-known one. It’s the first NaNo book to be made into a movie: Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.
As a young man, Jacob Jankowski was tossed by fate onto a rickety train that was home to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. It was the early part of the great Depression, and for Jacob, now ninety, the circus world he remembers was both his salvation and a living hell. A veterinary student just shy of a degree, he was put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie.
It was there that he met Marlena, the beautiful equestrian star married to August, the charismatic but twisted animal trainer. And he met Rosie, an untrainable elephant who was the great gray hope for this third-rate traveling show. The bond that grew among this unlikely trio was one of love and trust, and, ultimately, it was their only hope for survival.
We’ve featured Water For Elephants before, in conjunction with the movie’s release.
- Introduction to Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
- Ideas for using Water for Elephants in the classroom
- Water for Elephants Desktop Wallpapers
- Water for Elephants: A Reader’s Guide, Excerpt & More
There isn’t an official book trailer, but here’s the theatrical trailer for the movie:
On Sara Gruen’s website, you’ll find:
You can find Water for Elephants at Amazon (paperback and Kindle), Barnes and Noble (paperback and Nook), Indie Bound, Powells, or your local book store.
Sara Gruen has written three other books: Ape House, Riding Lessons, and Flying Changes.
For the comments: Have you read Water for Elephants? Did you know it was a NaNo book? Did you see the movie?
How did your NaNo writing go? Did you win? Did you learn something about yourself and your writing?
Novel Novice 
wow I am so shocked that water for elephants was a nano book. I loved this book and can’t wait to see the movie. I did finish my nano book about vampires on the titanic and am in the editing stage. I am so proud of myself. I loved nano
Congrats on finishing Nano!
I read Water For Elephants knowing it was a NaNo and I enjoyed it. I liked the Q&A in the back of the novel I haven’t seen the film yet, I’m waiting for it to hit Redbox !
I hope you all did better than me on your Nano projects. I didn’t even reach 7000 words. We unexpectedly had to put one of our cats down early in the month and I just couldn’t get back into it after that. 😦