Who doesn’t love elephants? Big flappy ears, long trunks, determination, and big-hearted …
One of my favourite childhood memories is of sitting beside a crackly record player, listening to the story of how The Elephant’s Child got his trunk. Although his aunts and uncles kept spanking him for his ‘satiable curiosity’, The Elephant’s Child never gave up. And after meeting a crocodile ‘on the banks of the great, grey-green greasy Limpopo River’, that little elephant had the last laugh. That ending was so satisfying and Rudyard Kipling’s language sparked my young imagination.
With the recent release of a fabulous new elephant book, Stellarphant (more about that in my next post), I’ve been thinking about elephant characters. What makes them so lovable? In many stories, their ears or trunks do extraordinary things, almost becoming characters in their own right. Elephant characters are often determined, hard-working, majestic and kind. As part of my wondering about elephant qualities in books, I re-read some old favourites:
Do you associate any particular qualities with the characters in these 10 elephant books?
Stella, the central character in James Foley‘s new picture book with Fremantle Press, is determined and adventurous. She wants to be an astronaut but Space Command won’t allow her in. In the next post I’ll be talking to James and sharing some background to Stellarphant.
In the meantime, if you want more elephant titles, it seems that I’m not the only person who loves elephant stories. Check out this link of elephant books for children. Or you might like to check out some of my other animal book lists; sloth, rabbits and bilbies, wolves, cattle, or dogs.
