Book Review

This is the first in what I hope will be a series of elephant book reviews.  As in reviews of books about elephants not book reviews written by an elephant.  Although, if I could work that out I would definitely blog those too.

The first book to be reviewed is:

Rudyard Kipling's How the Elephant Got His Trunk: The Graphic Novel by Blake A. Hoena (author) and Pedro Rodriguez (illustrator)

This is the story of how an inquisitive baby elephant went from having a nose like a boot to having the trunk that we all know today.  This retelling of the classic tale is pretty faithful to the original.  It has all the adults who discourage the baby elephant from being curious which leads to his trip to find answers which leads to his fateful meeting with the crocodile.  It leaves out all the revenge spanking that the baby does when he gets home that Kipling put in, but it hints at it, and the rest of the story is very close to Kipling's.  It has cute, fun illustrations that would make it fun for kids and even has a little dictionary in the back for some of the harder words like curiosity and insatiable.  (Which makes it just about the perfect level for the Monkeys.)  It also includes the poem about the honest serving-men what, where, when, how, why and who.  It would be a good introduction to Kipling for young readers that might inspire them to read the original stories.