The copper elephant

Blurb

The Copper Elephant is a young adult science fiction novel by Adam Rapp. It was published 2 November 1999 by Front Street, an imprint of Boyds Mills Press.
The story is told from the perspective on an eleven-year-old girl, Whensday Bluehouse. She lives in a future ruled by a fascist regime that employs child slave labor. She is on the verge of starvation throughout most of the book, and the future is bleak.
Library of Congress CPD Summary: "In a world where children under twelve are used as slave labor in subterranean lime mines, eleven-year-old Whensday Bluehouse struggles to survive the continuous poison rains and evade the ruthless Syndicate soldiers."