Holthe, Tess Uriza. When the Elephants Dance. New York. 2002. Crown. 0609609521. 369 pages. hardcover. Jacket design by Jennifer O'Connor. 

FROM THE PUBLISHER -

In the waning days of World War II, the Filipino people were caught between a brutal Japanese occupation and battling U.S. forces. In this compelling, incandescent novel, thirteen-year-old Alejandro Karangalan, his spirited older sister Isabelle, and Domingo, a passionate guerilla commander, narrate the story of the Karangalans-a family who huddle with their neighbors in the cellar of a house near Manila to wait out the war. In their crowded refuge, the group shares magical stories of Filipino myth and legend. Spellbinding, with a dazzling array of ghosts, witches, supernatural creatures, and courageous Filipinos from history, these tales transport the listeners and give them new resolve to survive.

Tess Uriza Holthe is a Filipino-American writer, who was born and raised in Bernal Heights, San Francisco and is best known for her National Bestselling novel When the Elephants Dance. Growing up, she took advantage of her mother’s connection with the nearby library to borrow as many books as she could read. She also looked to her father’s stories about the Philippines (a technician in a nearby sweat shop) for the inspiration she would later use in her novel When the Elephants Dance. Tess holds a degree in accounting from Golden Gate University. Although she was raised to obtain a practical career, (which was either being a lawyer, doctor or an accountant) in her last year of college she enrolled in a writing class, only to find out she had a talent for writing. The Five-Forty-Five To Cannes was published in 2007 and cited as an American Library Association Notable Book, as well as named a 2007 notable book by the San Francisco Chronicle. When the Elephants Dance was published in 2002 and won the National Best-seller award, crowned the #1 Bestseller by the San Francisco Chronicle, Book Sense Top Ten, Ingram Premier Pick, Barnes & Noble Discover, and Borders' Original Voices Selection. The novel explores the retelling of supernatural tales based on indigenous Filipino mythology and Spanish-influenced novels, told from the perspective of a family hiding in a cellar during the last weeks of the Japanese occupation in the Philippines.