Where’s the Elephant?
by Stephane-Yves Barroux
Candlewick Press, 2016
When I opened the pages, I assumed the book was like a “Where’s Waldo”, where I was to look for the elephant, parrot and snake on each page, but as I kept turning the pages, a new light dawned. With each page-turn the forest grew smaller and smaller. A few cut trees soon grew into a growing city. Eventually the animals were captured in a zoo. To my relief, they escaped and returned to the wild. Where’s the Elephant? is a very clever way to introduce children to deforestation. The story was inspired when author/artist Barroux watched parts of the Amazon be burned down to turn into soy production. A must read for environmentally-conscious families; even the youngest can grasp the concept in this brilliantly told and illustrated story.