Obvious Elephant

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Overview

An elephant wanders into a village-announced and unexpected-but no one has seen an elephant before! The villagers attempt to identify this visitor and finally rely upon a professor who runs tests and experiments to determine what Eric, a clever little boy, has been saying all along is true: indeed it is an elephant!

When an elephant appears one day in the town square, no one, including the elephant itself, knows what it is.

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More About This Book

Overview

An elephant wanders into a village-announced and unexpected-but no one has seen an elephant before! The villagers attempt to identify this visitor and finally rely upon a professor who runs tests and experiments to determine what Eric, a clever little boy, has been saying all along is true: indeed it is an elephant!

When an elephant appears one day in the town square, no one, including the elephant itself, knows what it is.

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Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly
This endearing nonsense tale from a British husband-and-wife team concerns an unknown gray object found sitting in the village square. "Maybe it wants plugging in?" one villager says. "Look at that nozzle on him.... What's that for?" says another. Windham's (Unicorns! Unicorns!) cast resembles wooden dolls, with round heads and stiff hands there's even a solemn king and queen and they bustle about importantly as they work to solve the riddle of the thing's identity. The Train Driver decides the object is a railway engine and hitches it up to a train, but the mystery guest does not like coal "I like buns and cakes." The timid pachyderm seems to press against the very edges of the illustrations, and swells to alarming proportions when the villagers try to use it to suck up garbage. Eric, "a little boy who was seven and three quarters and known locally for telling Tall Stories," saves the day. He brings the mystery to the Professor, prompting him to identify it as an elephant, which gratifies the villagers and greatly relieves their visitor. Windham's inventive and deadpan drawings provide the best moments. The combination of elephants and landscapes in which such animals are rarely seen at rural British train stations, in libraries, drifting in oceans will inspire grins in the most earnest listener. Robinson's British whimsy plus an elephant-sized imagination should earn this story a place at bedside tables on both sides of the Atlantic. Ages 4-8. (Aug.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Children's Literature
In this humorous variation on the fable of the blind men and the elephant, an elephant arrives one day in a town where no one has ever seen or heard of one. As the townspeople try to guess his function, yet none of the things they try to do with him work, young Eric attempts to explain but they don't listen. Finally Eric takes the elephant to the Professor, who eventually agrees that he is an elephant. All are pleased at this conclusion, until the elephant requests a name. Luckily Eric finds it on the handkerchief he carries¾"Cotton." The soft-edged, slightly stylized paintings provide a low-key, gently comic visual narrative using a variety of formats, from small decorative borders to full pages with details of the town and people. The emotional attachment of Elephant and Eric is clear from the jacket/cover. 2000, Bloomsbury Children's Books,
— Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz
School Library Journal
K-Gr 3-This British import is a bit reminiscent of "The Emperor's New Clothes." When an elephant mysteriously appears in a village where no one has ever seen or even heard of such a creature, the townspeople try to discover his identity and purpose in life. Eric, a boy known to tell tall tales, says that he has the answer, but the community never gives him the time to share his knowledge. After an engineer tries to make the elephant into a train engine, the fireman attempts to use him as a fire engine, and the dustman experiments with him as a new rubbish collector, the townsfolk go with the elephant and the child to the professor. After conducting tests, he attempts to announce his findings but becomes tongue-tied, and Eric finally shouts out that the creature "simply is an elephant," and that it does what elephants do-"nothing!" At book's end, the animal is given the name "One Hundred Per Cent Cotton," the words embroidered on his handkerchief. The illustrations, which appear to have been done in colored pencil, portray townspeople in 19th-century garments. Several of the spreads include smaller, framed pictures. Presented as if it were a timeless tale, this story offers a subtle lesson of acceptance and understanding.-Shawn Brommer, South Central Library System, Madison, WI Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
"Imagine a town, in a country, where a simple thing like an Elephant had never been seen, or even heard of . . ." Husband-and-wife collaborators Robinson and Windham do just that in this thoroughly modern tale steeped in Old World tradition. A mix between The Blind Men and the Elephant and The Boy Who Cried Wolf, the story centers on the attempts by the village innocents to name the animal. The elephant's enormous size leads the Train Driver to believe he's a railway engine; the Fireman mistakes the creature's nose for a hose; and the Dustman declares him a vacuum cleaner. Rendered in dusky country hues, Windham's humorous vignettes picture the possibilities. A sketch of the elephant inflated ("He is a modern type of refuse collecting machine) is especially amusing. Only Eric ("a little boy who was seven and three quarters and known locally for telling Tall Stories") knows the truth. Trouble is, no one will listen. When the townspeople send the Elephant to be examined by the Professor, Eric goes along for the ride. Here, banners frame the page. One shows a scientific diagram of the elephant; Bunsen burners, beakers, and test tubes make up the other. Turns out, naming the elephant is a test for the professor too; it's only with Eric's help that he remembers the word. Robinson's droll narrative-which draws on time-honored tales to create an altogether fresh text-is perfectly balanced by Windham's whimsical illustrations. This one's a good bet for read-aloud fun; older audiences will likely appreciate Robinson's skillful yarn-spinning. (Picture book. 4-8)
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781582347691
  • Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
  • Publication date: 8/17/2002
  • Edition description: 1ST US
  • Pages: 32
  • Age range: 4 - 8 Years
  • Product dimensions: 9.50 (w) x 11.90 (h) x 0.50 (d)

Meet the Author

Bruce Robinson is an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter of "The Killing Fields" and starred in the 1998 film "Still Crazy". He wrote and directed the black comedy cult classic "Withnail and I". He is married to illustrator Sophie Windham.

Sophie Windham is the illustrator of Unicorns, Unicorns and The Mermaid and Other Sea Poems. Sophie and author Bruce Robinson are married and live in London, England.

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