If You Were an Elephant

by Leslie Staub, Richard Jones (Illustrator)

Overview

A charming and exuberant nonfiction picture book about a young elephant's day on the savanna with her herd.

If you were an elephant, you'd be the biggest animal who lives on the land. You'd have ears big as tent flaps, skin thick as blankets. You'd turn the next page with your trunk, not your hand.

Chock-full of amazing facts, this joyful read aloud invites readers to follow in the (enormous) footsteps of one of the world's most remarkable creatures—from munching on bushes and branches all day, to splashing around in water holes and mud baths, to finally curling up with the herd in a pool of moonlight. Kids will love every moment of this playful introduction to the daily sights, sounds, and activities of a young elephant in the wild.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781524741341
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	07/20/2021
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	11.00(w) x 9.38(h) x 0.42(d)
Lexile:	AD550L (what's this?)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

Leslie Staub is a children's book author and illustrator from New Orleans, Louisiana. She illustrated Whoever You Are by Mem Fox, Mama's Nightingale: A Story of Immigration and Separation by Edwidge Danticat, and Lives: Poems About Famous Americans by Lee Bennett Hopkins. She has also written several books for children, including Shine, Baby, Shine and Bedtime for Beasties, among others.

Richard Jones is the author and illustrator of Perdu, and has illustrated many books for children, including Winter Dance by Marion Dane Bauer, Whale in a Fishbowl by Troy Howell, and The Snow Lion by Jim Helmore. He lives in Exeter, England. Visit him online at paintedmouse.com. Follow him on Instagram @apaintedmouse.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for If You Were an Elephant:

A Bank Street Best Children’s Book of the Year

* "Engaging and full of whimsical imagery . . . Readers learn about other animals of the savanna, herd behaviors, diet, mud baths, and more—along with a plethora of varied verbs and adjectives. The layout and artwork complement the text perfectly . . . Good as a read-aloud and for emergent readers, it concludes in a way that leads equally gracefully to the author’s notes or bedtime." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"Delightful . . . Beautifully illustrated by Jones in a highly textured style that calls to mind the friendly, simplified shapes of Eric Carle's collages, all in an appropriately golden palette of natural tones . . . There's plenty little ones can grasp from this book's winsome lines and genial artwork." —Booklist

"Inviting . . . Exuberant . . . Readers will want to keep turning the pages of this engaging and informative picture book." —The Horn Book

From the Publisher

★ 2021-04-14
How might readers look, act, and live if they were wild African elephants?

“If you were an elephant, you’d be the biggest animal who lives on the land.” Thus begins the patterned text, with the titular phrase introducing a series of facts every few pages; all are told with a pleasant cadence and occasional rhymes or near rhymes. From the start, the text is engaging and full of whimsical imagery: After the opening text compares elephants’ ears to tent flaps and their thick hides to blankets, it says: “You’d turn the next page with your trunk, not your hand.” Readers learn about other animals of the savanna, herd behaviors, diet, mud baths, and more—along with a plethora of varied verbs and adjectives. The layout and artwork complement the text perfectly. The stylized art uses a broad but soft spectrum of colors and includes geometric patterns in the elephants’ habitat. The elephants themselves are rendered simply in solid colors and sport winsome faces and stances. A particularly clever illustration shows a baby elephant learning from its mother how to stamp warnings on the ground. The large, gray, tusked mother and her pastel, tuskless child are backgrounded by the page’s stark white; they stand high atop a crazy-quilt representation of sound waves. Good as a read-aloud and for emergent readers, it concludes in a way that leads equally gracefully to the author’s notes or bedtime. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Worth a trumpet. (Informational picture book. 3-7)

Kirkus Reviews