Desert Elephants

Author: Helen Cowcher
Publication Date: 2011
Type of Book: Informational Picture Book

This picture books shares information about the last remaining herd of desert elephants living in West Africa. You learn about the elephants migration that begins when the dry season starts and ends when the rain returns in June. The people indigenous to the Mali area respect and care about the elephants. You see this respect through the Tuareg nomads saying: "We live with the elephants, and the elephants live with us."

I enjoyed reading this story. The illustrations are fantastic and include a lot of detail. I also loved the colors used in the story. Before reading the story I didn't know anything about the desert elephants. I learned a lot about the migration these elephants take and what their homeland is like. I found it so interesting that you have these groups of people who just live among the elephants. It has been that way for years and they have a mutual understanding of this. It also brought up the concern of tourists coming in and wanting to see the elephants, which causes them to be aggressive. I know people want to observe these animals in the wild but they have to be considerate of the animals and understand how they must feel when people invade their home. At then end of the story in the authors note she included different questions based on the book such as, "Why is finding water a problem for the elephants?" She then provides a small summary explaining the answer. This could be used as an activity for older students. The students could be assigned a question and have to attempt to answer it  using the story. They could then check their answer to the one written in the story.

I would recommend this story as a read aloud for students in first grade and up. I think that students in kindergarten would not understand the concept of the story and the vocabulary words would be too challenging for them. This story contains some difficult vocabulary words so that is why reading the book as a class could be helpful. The students and teacher could discuss what is happening in the story together and help clarify challenging parts. Together the class could also map the migration of the elephants.

Image References:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10675253-desert-elephants