Twenty-One Elephants

by Phil Bildner, LeUyen Pham (Illustrator)

Overview

Step right up, ladies and gents.
Believe the unbelievable and dream the impossible because Hannah, the little girl with big dreams, is coming your way.
Come and see for yourself her bold acts of bravery, her courageous conviction as she proves to the world that the Brooklyn Bridge is safe to cross.
But she can't do it alone.
P. T. Barnum and his parade of twenty-one elephants provide a spectacular show that will save the day!
Impossible, you say?
Then you'll have to look inside.
You won't want to miss this, the greatest show on earth.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780689870118
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Publication date:	10/01/2004
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	532,633
Product dimensions:	10.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Phil Bildner is a former New York City public school teacher who lives in Newburgh, New York. He spends much of his year visiting schools and libraries around the country and world. He is the author of over twenty books including the middle grade novel A Whole New Ballgame and picture books Marvelous Cornelius, The Soccer Fence, The Hallelujah Flight, and Twenty-One Elephants. Along with Loren Long, he is the coauthor of the New York Times bestselling Sluggers series. Visit him online at PhilBildner.com.

LeUyen Pham has illustrated more than fifty books, including board books, picture books, chapter books, and graphic novels. Her work has been recognized with numerous honors, including the Society of Illustrators Los Angeles Bronze Medal in the Children’s Book category, and Best Books of the Year lists in publications such as Kirkus Reviews, The Horn Book Magazine, and Comic Book Resources. She is also a New York Times bestseller for Grace for President, written by Kelly DiPucchio; Freckleface Strawberry and the Dodgeball Bully, written by Julianne Moore; and Princess in Black, written by Shannon and Dean Hale. Born in Vietnam, LeUyen came to the United States at the end of the Vietnam War when she was only two. She studied illustration at The Art Center College of Design, and for a short period of time worked at DreamWorks Animation as a layout artist before turning to illustration full time. She lives with her husband (who is also an artist) and two sons in Los Angeles. Visit her online at LeUyenPham.com.

Editorial Reviews

Bildner's (Shoeless Joe and Black Betsy) appealing tale celebrates the building of the Brooklyn Bridge, as well as the perseverance of a girl determined to walk across it. During the first years of her life, Hannah watches, fascinated, as workers begin to construct the world's first steel suspension bridge. "She dreamed of the day when she would finally be able to walk across it and out into the big city." Yet Hannah's father insists that this "metal monster" cannot possibly be safe-even after the bridge's chief engineer, Emily Roebling, rides across it in a horse-drawn carriage. Pham's (Piggies in a Polka) detailed, realistic watercolors chart the architectural wonder's slow rise outside the girl's window, while the full-bleed three-quarter spreads depict 19th-century Brooklyn's buildings and streets. Hannah's other family members, teachers and townsfolk echo her father's skepticism and voice suspicion that the bridge "is certain to collapse," even as the heroine futilely recites facts about the bridge's strength and size. She finally has a brainstorm while watching elephants perform at the circus and asks P.T. Barnum if she can borrow his animals. "Great minds think alike, little lady," replies the showman, and a wordless spread depicts Barnum's 21 elephants triumphantly parading across the Brooklyn Bridge-a feat that finally convinces Hannah's father that "the bridge was indeed safe and strong." Bildner and Pham deftly juggle fact and fiction in this charming tale, which celebrates a child's imagination and faith. Ages 4-8. (Oct.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

K-Gr 2-From toddlerhood on, Hannah has watched the building of the Brooklyn Bridge and cannot wait to walk across it into Manhattan. Her father does not trust the structure and refuses to allow her to cross it. They attend the opening ceremony with President Chester A. Arthur, the mayor of New York, and Mrs. Emily Roebling (the chief engineer), but nothing will convince the man that the architectural marvel is safe. To cheer her up, her father takes her to the circus, where she shares an idea with P. T. Barnum. He shows her a flyer (that readers do not see) advertising a circus parade with the famous Jumbo in the lead. A few days later, 21 elephants cross the bridge and Hannah's father is convinced that it is secure. While the realistically rendered watercolors give a reasonably accurate view of life during the period, Hannah seems to grow very little. It took about eight years to complete the project and the child never looks older than five or six. The author's note indicates that P. T. Barnum actually did parade his elephants over the Brooklyn Bridge in 1884. This title would add a little something to a unit on transportation or New York City history, but it doesn't capture the real excitement the bridge held for many people at that time.-Susan Lissim, Dwight School, New York City Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

Fact and fiction dovetail neatly in this tale of a wonderfully resolute child who finds a memorable way to convince her father that the newly-finished Brooklyn Bridge is safe to cross. Having watched the great bridge going up for most of her young life, Hannah is eager to walk it, but despite repeated, fact-laced appeals to reason (and Hannah is a positive fount of information about its materials and design), her father won't be moved: "No little girl of mine will cross that metal monster!" Hannah finally hatches a far-fetched plan to convince him once and for all; can she persuade the renowned P.T. Barnum to march his corps of elephants across? She can, and does (actually, he was already planning to do it). Pham places Hannah, radiating sturdy confidence, within sepia-toned, exactly rendered period scenes that capture both the grandeur of the bridge in its various stages of construction, and the range of expressions on the faces of onlookers during its opening ceremonies and after. Readers will applaud Hannah's polite persistence. (afterword, resources) (Picture book. 7-10)

Kirkus Reviews