illustrated by Christiane Pieper
Summary
School Library Journal:
PreS-K— In somewhat forced rhyming text—”Ccrrrack!/A coconut hit him on the head./Enough, thought the elephant,/And he fled”—Ravishankar relates the story of a young elephant that is separated from his mother during a storm and carried along with some stampeding water buffalo, eventually becoming a useful and valued member of the herd. In the end, when he meets a group of welcoming elephants, he unrealistically chooses to remain with his water buffalo friends. The attractive, digitally created artwork, in black and periwinkle on cream, has the appearance of block prints. Text formatting varies greatly. On some spreads, storm or animal sounds, printed in a variety of sizes from large to immense, are successfully and strikingly incorporated into the illustration. On many others, the short, straight lines of awkwardly placed oversize text pull the eye away from the artwork. The narrative of this Indian import and the formatting of the text are no match for Pieper’s well-conceived and well-executed pictures.—Susan Scheps, Shaker Heights Public Library, OH –Susan Scheps (Reviewed April 1, 2008) (School Library Journal, vol 54, issue 4, p119)
Awards:
- USBBY Outstanding International Books – Grades K-2: 2009