A PERFECT FRIEND
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, New York 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
Copyright © 2000 by Reynolds Price
Frontispiece © 2000 by Maurice Sendak
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
Book design by Michael Nelson
The text of this book is set in Goudy.
Printed in the United States of America
2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Price, Reynolds, 1933-
A perfect friend / Reynolds Price.
p. cm.
Summary: Still grieving over the death of his mother, eleven-year-old Ben finds solace in the special relationship he forms with an elephant in a visiting circus.
ISBN 0-689-83029-7
eISBN: 978-1-439-10627-3
[1. Elephants—Fiction. 2. Circus—Fiction. 3. Human-animal communication—Fiction. 4. Grief—Fiction. 5. Death—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.P93163 Pe 2000
[Fic]—dc21
99-55397
