FICTION

A Baby Elephant in the Wild

by Caitlin O'CONNELL
photos by Caitlin O'Connell & Timothy Rodwell. 40p. maps. Houghton Harcourt. Mar. 2014. Tr $16.99. ISBN 9780544149441.
COPY ISBN
Gr 2–4—In this account of a journey into the scrub desert of Namibia, readers meet a newborn elephant and her family. Children learn about Liza's early accomplishments: walking within hours, keeping up with the herd as they travel, and learning how to use her trunk and what is safe to eat. The animals walk 10 to 20 miles a day to find food, with the babies hidden behind their mothers or under them between their legs. This is a beautiful story told with care and compassion. It is obvious that the author has great respect for these animals and hopes to inspire that same feeling in her readers. The text is illustrated with beautiful photographs of elephants bathing, rolling in the mud, and moving from place to place, and there are wonderful pictures of Liza with her bright pink ears and underbelly-even her toenails are pink. A "Did you know?" section provides more facts about elephants, and a note explains how fortunate the author was to be able to witness an elephant birth in the wild. The book has plenty of factual information for reports and will be appreciated by animal lovers.—Cynde Suite, Bartow Cty. Lib. Syst., Adairsville, GA
In text and numerous color photographs we follow a newborn female elephant through her first months in the Namibian scrub desert as she learns the behaviors that will enable her to survive. The account is straightforward and unsentimental yet filled with detailed and fascinating scientific information, including the lifelong ties among elephants that will resonate with readers' own experience of family.
Readers are invited to follow along with scientist and author O'Connell's (The Elephant Scientist, rev. 11/11) observations of a newborn female elephant through the beginning of her life, starting just after her birth and moving on through her first months in the Namibian scrub desert. The animal's development over these short months is remarkable, as the young elephant learns the behaviors that will enable her to survive: walking, drinking water properly (sucking water up into her trunk and then blowing it into her mouth), and, perhaps most importantly, relating to the members of her extended family group who work together to protect their young. O'Connell's account of baby Liza's development is straightforward and unsentimental yet filled with detailed and fascinating scientific information about the lifelong ties among elephants that will resonate with readers' own feelings about family. The numerous color photographs, tightly tied to the narrative, illustrate the described elephant behaviors. The back matter includes additional elephant facts and an author's note. danielle j. ford
Reviewed by Cynde Suite , Mar 01, 2014

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