Bandoola: The Great Elephant Rescue

by William Grill

Overview

In this moving tale, join war veteran James Howard Williams as he encounters Bandoola, a working Asian elephant, and his keeper, Po Toke for the first time. A valuable story that captures the realities of deforestation, elephant endangerment, and the exploitation of nature. The perfect kids history book for ages 9-12.

"This remarkable book is a must-read."
—Booklist STARRED REVIEW

Working together on a teak plantation, Williams and Bandoola develop a rare friendship, which even today set standards around elephant care and conservation.

When another war forces them to leave their home in the Burmese jungle, the two undertake a journey that will test their friendship, taking trust, understanding and bravery to the very limit. Together, they lead a group of refugees and over 70 elephants to safety, scaling 5000 ft mountains as they cross the border from Burma into northern India.

Parents on the search for fact and animal books for kids ages 8-12 will be excited by the rich trove of information this lovely book hosts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781838740238
Publisher:	Flying Eye Books Ltd.
Publication date:	03/01/2022
Pages:	88
Sales rank:	561,812
Product dimensions:	10.00(w) x 12.25(h) x 0.63(d)
Lexile:	1000L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

William Grill is a London based illustrator whose main interest lies in narrative illustration and publishing. He draws most of his inspiration from the natural world, and enjoys working in colored pencils and relief printmaking; his first book Shackleton's Journey won the 2015 Kate Greenaway award and was named one of the New York Times' Best Illustrated Books. It has been translated into over 14 languages. As well as running a weekly art club William has given workshops at The Design Museum, Southbank Centre, schools and universities.

Read an Excerpt

Myanmar is a country in South-east Asia, nestled between India, Bangladesh,China, Laos and Thailand. The country is famous for its vast forests, which provideimportant habitats for wildlife. Sadly, today many of these forests are being cutdown by humans to make way for farms or to use the wood to make buildings, paperor furniture. This is called deforestation.

From 1824 to 1948, Myanmar was a colony of the British Empire and the countrywas renamed Burma. On 4th January 1948, Myanmar celebrated its independence.Throughout this book, we will refer to it as Myanmar.

Before the British arrived, Myanmar had grown all its own food, mostly on smallfarms. Under British rule, it became a land of trade and export, selling goodsand resources to other countries all over the world. Although the country sawgrowth and development, most of the wealth was enjoyed by the British Empireand disrupted the way of life for the people of Myanmar. The negative impacts ofthe British occupation of Myanmar are still felt in the country today.

This story takes place when the British Empire profited by exploiting Myanmar’sland, which was rich in natural resources such as oil, gas, jade, rubies, tin and, mostimportantly for our story, timber.

Timber was Myanmar’s most valuable resource, especially the exotic hardwood teak.This rich nut- brown wood was highly valued because of its strength, waterresistance and beauty. It was perfect for building ships and other hard-wearingobjects. Since much of the world’s teak originated from Myanmar’s forests, it is nowillegal to sell it to other countries.

Editorial Reviews

STARRED REVIEW from Booklist
A Junior Library Guild Selection
Selected by The Children's Book Council for their March Hot Off The Press Reading list

"A sensitive retelling of a timber elephant's role in WWII"
—Colossal


“This picture book will sweep you off your feet, bring you to tears and ignite a fire in your heart to do something about saving elephants! A heroic journey that you’ll never forget. This is an absolute must read! We could not put it down!”
—Inclusive Children’s Books

From the Publisher