How to Catch An Elephant - Hardcover

DK Publishing

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0789425793 ISBN 13: 9780789425799

Publisher: DK Children, 1999

Synopsis

Here's the secret. Follow your uncle's advice and take to the jungle "3 cakes, 2 raisins, 1 telescope, and a pair of tweezers." Find a tree and wait for an elephant. If the elephant is angry, obstreperous, and hungry...hold on, be brave--things are not always what they seem.

About this title

About the Author

Amy Schwartz has written and illustrated many classic picture books, among them Bea and Mr. Jones, a "Reading Rainbow" Feature, Oma and Bobo, Annabelle Swift, Kindergartner, and A Teeny Tiny Baby, a New York Times Best Illustrated Book of the Year. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Reviews

PreSchool-K-A silly story that is sure to elicit giggles. After being given instructions by her Uncle Jack on just how to catch an elephant, a young girl eagerly sets out to complete this task. "Remember," says her uncle, "elephants are crazy about raisins.-And elephants hate cake." Besides those two strange bits of advice, she is also told to take a telescope and a pair of tweezers. Large, cartoonlike illustrations painted with warm oranges, yellows, and blues and placed on complementary-colored backgrounds are perfect for group sharing and perfectly suit this funny tale.
Rachel Fox, Port Washington Public Library, NY
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Schwartz's (Old MacDonald Had a Farm) girl narrator, ardently in pursuit of a pachyderm, gives her audience some deceptively simple instructions for snaring one. The tools required for the catch, she explains, are few: three cakes, two raisins, one telescope and a pair of tweezers. Speaking breezily, the youngster then advises readers to "ask your Uncle Jack to bring you to the place where elephants go." Equally breezy unadorned gouache art depicts the girl carrying tiny tweezers and a large telescope as she follows her uncleAwho balances a boxed cake on his head while gripping two others in his handsAto just the right spot. With playful repetition and shrewdly kid-targeted visual humor, the author chronicles the capturing of a temperamental, brightly hued yellow pachyderm. To offer a hint at the outcome without giving it away, the fellow loves raisins but hates cakeAand becomes quite tiny when viewed through the wrong end of a telescope. Generous supplies of whimsy and understated humor turn out an engaging, outlandish how-to. Ages 3-6. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Taking a broad swipe at children's silly bones, Schwartz (A Teeny Tiny Baby, 1994, etc.) concocts a strategy for elephant-snatching that involves raisins (``Elephants are crazy about raisins!''), cake (``Elephants hate cake!''), a telescope, and savvy advice from an uncle. In uncluttered cartoon illustrations, an intrepid, carrot- topped young trapper is pitted against an enormous, bright yellow elephant who, becoming very annoyed when the raisins run out, stomps the cakes ``flatter than a pancake in Topeka,'' and looks angry enough to stomp the child as well. Remembering her uncle's advice, she takes a quick look through the telescope's big end, and sees that the ponderous pachyderm is pocket-sized, just right for taking home. It's a wild, daffy recipe for gasps and giggles: now, anyone for a bear hunt? (Picture book. 5-7) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: DK Children
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0789425793
• ISBN 13: 9780789425799
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 40