From the Publisher
With vibrant illustrations, the text has been abridged for a younger audience.
Children's Literature - Mary Bowman-Kruhm Ed.D.
Although abridged, this version about the baby elephant who, like all elephants then, had a bulbous nose, preserves the integrity of the whimsical and witty words in Kipling's original story. The Elephant's Child was "full of ?satiable curiosity." Like other word choices, a synonym for insatiable might have lowered the reading level but would have done harm to the charm of Kipling's tale. Wisely, word choice and syntax pattern the original. When the Elephant's Child continually asks his relatives endless questions, they respond by spanking him. The Ostrich uses her "hard, hard claw," the Giraffe his "hard, hard hoof," the Baboon his "hairy, hairy paw," and so on. After receiving a round of spankings when he asks what the Crocodile eats for dinner, he sets out to discover the answer for himself. The Kolokolo Bird tells him, "Go to the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River and find out." Crocodile promises to whisper the answer if he comes close and then catches him by his little nose and pulls. With help from Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake, Elephant's Child escapes but his nose is much stretched. The Snake wisely points out the advantages, Elephant's Child returns home to retaliate for his spankings by using his long nose to get back at his relatives, who eventually troop off "to the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River to borrow new noses from the Crocodile," and no one spanked anyone after that. Patterson's illustrations are striking. Vibrant colors creatively splash across the book's pages with visual delight as the flow of the Kimpopo River mirrors the elephant's trunk and Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake. One can imagine youngsters' squeals of delight with each turning page of this charming and gorgeously illustrated introduction to Kipling. Reviewer: Mary Bowman-Kruhm, Ed.D.
