EVIE AND RHINO

In 1891 Australia, a girl grieving the loss of her parents bonds with a shipwrecked rhinoceros.

Evie, 10, hasn’t spoken since her parents died at sea two years ago. She lives with her ornithologist grandfather in “crumbling” Lunar House in a remote corner of the state of Victoria, where they are tended by Cook (their housekeeper) and Mr. Duffer (their farmhand). Evie has a preternatural affinity for animals, so when she comes across Rhino stranded on the beach, she’s unafraid and leads him home to the stables. Rhino’s an astonishingly agreeable fellow and quickly endears himself to the household, even going so far as to help Cook with the laundry. Nevertheless, Grandpa telegraphs the authorities and learns Rhino had been bound for the Royal Melbourne Zoo, which dispatches a representative to retrieve him. Evie frets over the prospect of losing Rhino, and Grandpa frets over the effect his loss will have on Evie. Basing her tale on a real incident, the shipwreck of the SS Bancoora, McMullin’s cozy adventure of interspecies love and healing has the sentimental feel of children’s literature of yore. Rhino’s cloying adoration of “the golden-haired human child” is only slightly tempered by his appealing earthiness. The human characters read white, and, underscoring the social class differences, the servants’ speech is rendered phonetically (“Yer drenched. Come on, let’s git yer changed”). Hicks’ grayscale drawings punctuate the text.

A nostalgic story that will appeal to lovers of old-fashioned tales.