The End of the Alphabet by CS Richardson

I liked The Persian Pickle Club by Sandra Dallas. It is not sappy, but nice. Also the Three Pines mysteries by Louise Penny starting with Still Life are cozy mysteries that are a nice read without any sappiness. Use these links to see more details about each book: http://raforall.blogspot.com/2008/05/book-discussion-persian-pickle-club.html or http://raforall.blogspot.com/2010/04/what-im-reading-still-life-and.html

Hannah's Dream, by Diane Hammond... another heartwarming book with elephants!

"For forty-one years, Samson Brown has been caring for Hannah, the lone elephant at the down-at-the-heels Max L. Biedelman Zoo. Having vowed not to retire until an equally loving and devoted caretaker is found to replace him, Sam rejoices when smart, compassionate Neva Wilson is hired as the new elephant keeper. But Neva quickly discovers what Sam already knows: that despite their loving care, Hannah is isolated from other elephants and her feet are nearly ruined from standing on hard concrete all day. Using her contacts in the zookeeping world, Neva and Sam hatch a plan to send Hannah to an elephant sanctuary—just as the zoo's angry, unhappy director launches an aggressive revitalization campaign that spotlights Hannah as the star attraction, inextricably tying Hannah's future to the fate of the Max L. Biedelman Zoo."

http://www.thepersianpickleclub.com/