a copy of the book:  The Magician's Elephant by Kate DiCamillo
notebook paper and a pen/pencil to write down new words, connections, wonderings as we read

Cautions from Commonsensemedia.org: 
"At the pivotal event a woman's legs are crushed by the elephant and she suffers pain and sleeplessness every night afterward. Many mentions that Peter's mother died in childbirth and his father in the war. Vilna Lutz has a wooden foot and suffers fevers and madness after years of military service. A short description of how an army dog became blind from a nearby explosion. Mention of how a stonemason suffered a major fall off a cathedral and barely lived."
Parts of the story are sad, particularly for a sensitive child.