Elephants Books

Everyone's talking too loud, moving to fast, and not listening enough. Can a shrew change Life with a simple plea for quiet? He has big things to say, but a very small voice can't compete with the world's racket. Kids will relish reading the 'noise words' loudly, from 'thump' to 'bang': be forewarned!

There is no doubt that the best indorsement for a children's book is one that is accomplished by children themselves, i.e. do they read and enjoy it. This work gets that indorsement! I have yet to find a kid that did not like it. That being said, I enjoyed this one myself. It is the story of a little shrew that has something very, very important to say. He finds is little voice is completely drowned out but the noise of the world. The moral of the story is that we should "Shhhsh" and listen to the little voices all round us. We might jus learn something. The art work in this one is great, very eye catching and goes perfectly with the story line. I do recommend this one highly...there is a great lesson to be learned here, for both young and old alike!

Have just started Homage To Catalina as I needed to make sure I had read everything by GO. But I do so enjoy his other writing and the reviews from the news papers. Shooting the Elephant is a wonderful story and so captures the expectation of the British person (with no knowledge) of the Indian person and those in the middle, caught and mortified, but unable to change attitudes at that time.

Of course I read this collection many years ago as most self-respecting writers of my generation have. After all, Orwell was a mentor to all of us as well as one of our heroes, and this collection includes not only the title piece, which is as good a personal experience essay as has ever been written, but also "Politics and the English Language," an essay on how to write and how not to write that is without parallel.

But as I perused the "Contents" page a forgotten chapter title caught my eye,"Confessions of a Book Reviewer"! I immediately turned to page 171. Oh, what a delight I beheld! Orwell begins the essay with, "In a cold but stuffy bed-sitting room littered with cigarette ends and half-empty cups of tea, a man in a moth-eaten dressing gown sits at a rickety table, trying to find room for his typewriter among the piles of dusty papers that surround it." After some further dreary detail, Orwell continues, "Needless to say this person is a writer. He might be a poet, a novelist, or a writer of film scripts or radio features, for all literary people are very much alike, but let us say that he is a book reviewer."

Of course Orwell is writing (with some scant distance) about Orwell. How candid he is and how well he eschews any glamour or romance in the self-portrait! And yet, there is something heroic about Orwell's depiction of the literary "hack" that is agreeable. He goes on to say as "the menacing finger of the clock" moves toward the reviewer's deadline, "suddenly he will snap into it. All the stale old phrases--'a book that no one should miss,' 'something memorable on every page.' 'of special value are the chapters dealing with, etc., etc.' will jump into their places like iron fillings obeying the magnet, and the review will end up at exactly the right length and with just about three minutes to go."

Orwell practiced a style that never called attention to itself (because the content was paramount), yet upon closer examination is characterized not only by precise diction and a rare clarity of expression but with the sort of metaphorical language that brings content to life. Note those "iron fillings"!

"Shooting an Elephant" begins with these famous words, "In Moulmein, in Lower Burma, I was hated by large numbers of people--the only time in my life that I have been important enough for this to happen to me." A few lines down he remarks, "I was young and ill-educated and I had had to think out my problems in the utter silence that is imposed on every Englishman in the East. I did not even know that the British Empire is dying, still less did I know that it is a great deal better than the younger empires that are going to supplant it...With one part of my mind I thought of the British Raj as an unbreakable tyranny...; with another part I thought that the greatest joy in the world would be to drive a bayonet into a Buddhist priest's guts. Feelings like these are the normal by-products of imperialism; ask any Anglo-Indian official." Change a few words and the sentiments he expresses might very well apply to someone from the United States in Iraq in the 21st century.

"Politics and the English Language" begins "Most people who bother with the matter at all would admit that the English language is in a bad way, but it is generally assumed that we cannot by conscious action do anything about it. Our civilization is decadent and our language--so the argument runs--must inevitably share in the general collapse." Ah, the lament of prescriptive linguists everywhere! What is wonderful about this essay is how specific Orwell is in first giving examples of writing that is, as he terms it, "a little below average" (there are five selected paragraphs); and second in referring back to these paragraphs as he demonstrates just what is wrong with that way of writing. He condemns in turn, "Dying metaphors," e.g., "ride roughshod over," "no axe to grind, etc."; "Operators or verbal false limbs," "militate against," "make contact with..."; "Pretentious diction," "epoch-making," "unforgettable..."; "Meaningless words...," e.g., "democracy," about which he notes, "not only is there no agreed definition, but the attempt to make one is resisted from all sides."

In the examples from last category I was struck again by how topical Orwell is now sixty-some years after this essay was written. He notes that "In certain kinds of writing, particularly in art criticism and literary criticism, it is normal to come across long passages which are almost completely lacking in meaning." Clearly he has been reading some of today's postmodern literature!

Some of the essays are no longer of much interest, I must admit--although I would say that the two mentioned prominently above are easily worth the purchase of the book. In particular the essay, "Books vs. Cigarettes" is largely irrelevant because of the price comparisons in the pounds and shillings of many years ago. However even here there is something worthwhile. Near the end of the essay Orwell notes that "the ordinary [English]man spends more on cigarettes than an Indian peasant has for his whole livelihood."

What is most striking about this book is again the clean, crisp, easy to read, but by no means in any way "dumbed down" prose. Orwell is the sort of writer that other writers greatly admire. His easy to read style is the result of hard work. Despite the decades that have gone by, these essays are for the most part still very much worth reading. If you have never read Orwell on language and politics, you are in for a special treat.

Reviewed by Danielle Feliciano for Reader Views, 8/06


"Small One's Adventure" is the tale of Small One, a young elephant who is eager to grow up. She does not like being a youngster and strives to prove she is not a baby. Throughout the story, Small One dutifully follows her mother and her herd, all the while thinking to herself of the ways in which she is more grown up than she seems. However, when danger strikes, Small One quickly realizes that she is not ready to be a big elephant yet and still needs to depend on her mother and her tribe.

The authors have given children a book subtly filled with the message that there is no need to rush into adulthood. Parents, too, will enjoy the moral of the story, as all parents fear their children growing up too soon. In the story of Small One, children will quickly see the benefits of remaining children for just a little bit longer.

Small One's Adventure is an original and gentle children's story by Doris L. Mueller about the youngest elephant in the herd, who wants to show the bigger and older members just how grown-up she is - but learns the hard way that rushing into adulthood isn't the way to go, and moms and dads really do have a wealth of experience to draw and learn from. A thoughtful tale, brought to life with color artwork by Parker Fulton that evokes the plains of Africa, Small One's Adventure is a welcome and recommended addition to family, community, and school library picture book collections.

My three year old daughter loves this book. We read it once or twice every day. It is like the game telephone where the message changes as it passes person to person. The pelican sees a hippotamus and forgets what he saw and describes some sort of monster with a very silly name. Then the next animal uses another description and name and so on. All of the animals are convinced there is a big scary monster when it is only the hippo. Very cute, very silly and a great addition to your child's bookshelf.

Beware, you will need to pre-read this book to yourself before reading it aloud to a child! My preschool class has chosen this book once or twice a day since I brought it in. They wait eagerly for me to read the name of each new silly animal, laughing joyfully each time they hear about the "whoppabigamouse," "gulpawobbletusk," or the "snarlyhissopus." The pictures are delightful and colorful, and not at all scary.

This book is perfect for babies & small children. My son is 9 months old & this is one of his favorite books. It has short phrases on each page while teaching numbers & doesn't have a lot of pages. The colors are bright & pictures are cute. The edges of the pages have a shamrock & my son finds it easy to turn the pages. He's also attracted to the cover because the shamrocks are shiny.

This board book makes for a good introduction to St Patrick's Day for younger kids because of it's simple concepts, colorful pictures and sturdy construction. (It can also be used year 'round for it's counting.) "St. Patrick's Day Countdown" is a book that counts backwards from 5 down to 1 using St Patrick's Day theme items and then some; bunnies, shamrocks, a pot of gold... you get the idea. It's also fun because the book is not exactly book shaped but has grabbable shamrock "tabs" so little ones can help turn the pages. I bought this for my one year old niece and her mom said it was "perfect". I like that it does not have hit-you-over-the-head St. Patrick Day overtones (ie. nothing religious) to it but still captures the spirit of the day.

This book places you inside the mindset of a man going thru a heart transplant surgery. This read starts out exploring his childhood, military background,marriages, in detail. A very personal reflection of a man, his life threatening sugery and how he has come to terms with the whole ordeal. A Good Read!

I was so enveloped in the authors mind that I could feel his agony and torment at the prospect of knowing someone would have to die in order for him to live. He keeps you inside of him from childhood to the succcessful transplant. I have not read a book before that made you see and feel the beauty of the landscape at the same time. A very enjoyable book, not all gloom and doom, some very funny chapters in his life.

Mark Twain gave advice to a young man who wanted to be a writer: "When you catch an adjective, ill it. No, I don't mean that utterly, but kill the most of them - then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together, they give strength whenthe are wide apart. An adjective-habit, or a wordy, diffuse, or flowery habit, once fastened upon a person, is as hard to get rid of as any other vice."

"The Stolen White Elephant" is a broad farce mocking the self-proclaimed omniscience of many fictional detectives, told entirely in the form of a series of ridiculous telegraphs. Revolving around the theft of a literal white elephant, the gift of the King of Siam, this manifestly absurd story is nevertheless modeled after the real life efforts of a blundering New York Police Department to recover the corpse of one Alexander T. Stewart, stolen from his family vault in 1878.

My boss shared her copy with me last year and I wanted to have my own for my library. This fit the bill and I've already loaned it out to a friend!

For a business/management book, it was an enjoyable read... Creative and offered solution ideas, as well as thinking/planning points. It used the typical examples that I found in most managment books, but it was balanced with focused ideas.

Definately recommend it!

What a great book! Who knew books like this existed? One of my friends from college introduced me to this series, and I think I must have bought 200 as gag gifts (no pun intended).

I read this book this morning at church. A friend had it inher bag for her children. I could not believe it even after readingit. It brought smiles to my face throughout the whole book because it was extremely humorous to me. Having such a subject in book form for the young is a great advantage. Some people shun these subjects and having it in print and pictures is a wonderful idea. Since Terry is the main character AND a female - it shines light to the world that not only is it ok for boys/men to do this in public or have such a problem but females also are just as human. Our family kids each other about "tooting" all the time and my mom, brothers, son, sisters-in-laws, brother-in-law, nieces and nephews will enjoy this book. I'm getting it to read to the whole family. Anyone who is a kid at heart needs to get "Terry Toots" for their home library!

There is definitely an elephant in my sons room! We really enjoy reading this story and picking out all the fun & familiar elements in the illustrations. A real winner of a storybook for us!

This is a wonderful light hearted book aout a young boy who is convinced that an elephant is hiding in his room. The elephant is to blame for all the messes that occur, but the boy's family won't seem to listen. The entire book is one long poem in the tradition of Dr. Seuss or Casey at the Bat. It makes a perfect bedtime story for youngsters.