Readers live the life of a young African elephant in this absorbing picture book, discovering lots in the process about elephants’ way of life and the threats they face from mankind.
‘I’ll tell you our history – hear every word’, says the little elephant, and we learn how the herds are led by the grandmothers, passing down information and knowledge to the younger members, until their ability to cross the savannah as they have for centuries is interrupted by man with roads and fences. Charlotte Guillain’s rhyming text and Sam Usher’s rich watercolour illustrations give a vivid sense of the elephants’ way of life and our young narrator himself feels very alive.
The final pages contain more information about elephants as well as the work that is being done to protect them, and explains how young people can get involved with conservation either in Africa or closer to home. A well thought out information book, beautifully presented.
Told in gentle rhyming verse, this beautiful non-fiction picture book follows the story of a heard of African elephants as they journey across the parched savannah in search for a water hole.
The matriarch tells of all the sounds of the savannah, and how the landscape has changed over the years. Still, she remembers where to find water, just as her mother did before her.
Accompanying non-fiction pages at the end of the book include information on African elephants, their family structure and migration patterns, as well as the challenges of climate change, habitat loss and illegal poaching, and what we as readers can do to help.
Charlotte Guillain writes fiction and non-fiction for children including the George's Amazing Adventures series, as featured on CBeebies Bedtime Stories. Her non-fiction picture book The Street Beneath My Feet was shortlisted for the UKLA Book Awards and selected by the Guardian as one of fifteen 'modern classics'.
