Never Ride Your Elephant to School - Hardcover

Johnson, Doug

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805028803 ISBN 13: 9780805028805

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR), 1995

Synopsis

Never ride your elephant to school. And if you need to be convinced, boy, do you need to read this book! It's not that the elephant is such a troublesome or unruly one, it's just that his natural exuberance combined with his rather distinctive size pose some very particular problems. Imagine an elephant sitting in a school desk, climbing rope in gym class, or playing tether ball at recess and you'll see what we mean!

The team who warned you Never to Babysit the Hippopotamuses! joins forced again to create another hilarious, raucous, good-time book that will appeal to anyone who's ever spent a day at school.

About this title

About the Author

Doug Johnson is a fourth-grade teacher who knows exactly how to make his students laugh. He is also a karate instructor and the author of several picture books. He lives in Bremerton, Washington with his wife and three children.

Abby Carter is the illustrator of a number of picture books, including Summer Legs by Anita Hakkinen. She lives in Cape Elizabeth, Maine with her husband and daughter.

Reviews

PreSchool-Grade 2?A humorous tale about a little girl who rides her elephant to school, thus creating a series of amusing mishaps. When the animal becomes lost and trumpets loudly, for example, the noise scares the students and causes the teacher to faint. And if the teacher faints, what else is there to do but revive her? And what better way to do so than to have the elephant squirt her with water. The ink-and-watercolor illustrations are both comical and colorful, complementing the text well. Carter follows Johnson's humorous cues, creating pictures that are hilariously eye-catching. Done in the same light, cautionary vein as Laura Numeroff's If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (1985) and If You Give a Moose a Muffin (1991, both HarperCollins), Johnson and Carter's advice is sure to prompt smiles in story hours.?Lisa Marie Gangemi, Sousa Elementary School, Port Washington, NY
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Talk about outdoing Mary and her little lamb. In the same vein as Johnson and Carter's Never Babysit the Hippopotamuses!, this zany title treats pet elephants as perfectly ordinary. A list of elephantine at-school behaviors is accompanied by images of a tusker wreaking classroom havoc ("He will trumpet quite loudly while looking for you. This could scare some of the children"). Students should "never open a bag of peanuts, even across the room from him," but they might let the elephant participate in spelling bees because "an elephant never forgets!" Johnson pursues his idea perhaps too exhaustively; he doesn't leave much room for readers to imagine their own elephant-instigated disasters. Carter (Summer Legs) creates a genial watercolor elephant whose trunk and limbs look as malleable as wet gray clay; as it strolls along, wobbly, distorted settings suggest its thudding footsteps. Gigglesome extras include the student pachyderm's pink polka-dot trousers, the skewed views of the frequently distressed teacher and assorted classroom chaos. Ages 4-7.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Ages 3^-8. In this cautionary tale, Johnson's tongue is planted firmly in his cheek as readers are warned that an elephant's natural exuberance can cause a few problems. Even though your elephant can help the spelling team win, he breaks chairs, blows over the teacher with applause, and won't fit under his desk during hurricane drill: also, "gym class could be hazardous. He'll want to climb the rope. . . . The rope might not hold up." Carter's line drawings with color washes capture the exploits of a bluish elephant, clad in pink pants with purple polka dots, and their riotous results. Young readers with a taste for slapstick will appreciate Johnson's droll text and Carter's ability to extract maximum humor out of each situation. Linda Ward-Callaghan

Edition details

• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0805028803
• ISBN 13: 9780805028805
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Carter Abby
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32