Survey of Authors and Secondary Sources

1. Author: Sara Gruen                                             Title: Water For Elephants

2. What made me interesting in this author is that she is a Canadian author and she usually writes her novels about animals or incorporates animals into her stories. Sara Gruen has also won many awards for her fiction books in the past with her book Riding Lessons.

3. Sara Gruen was born in Vancouver, lived in London,Ontario and went to the university of Ottawa. She now lives in a community outside of Chicago.

4.Other published books include: Flying Changes, Riding Lessons, and Ape House. All of her books were written in a fictional format.

5. Sara Gruen is a devoted animal lover which in my opinion is what makes her want to write. Due to the fact that she is a fictional writer the places and time of her books change. This making her an interesting author and you never know what the setting and time is going to be in her novels.

Sara Gruen

6. The themes that Sara chooses to write about are: inspiration, independence and passion.

7. Some other authors that Sara has been compared to are: Margaret Atwood and Kate DiCamillo because of their love for animals and wildlife.

8. Critical Sources:

http://www.helium.com/items/1614041-book-review-water-for-elephants-by-sara-gruen
Mulwane, Marilla. Water for Elephants. Helium Inc., 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/04/books/review/04judd.html
Judd, Elizabeth. Water for Elephants. NY Times., 2006

http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=18488
Schwartz, Allan. Water for Elephants. LCSW., 2008