Elephants Books

This is extensive work. Great Illustrations and photograps. For the serious collector and examiner.

This is one of those titles that you may have never heard of but once you give it a chance will become a must read. A great premise but definetly not what you might expect. The writing is great and the art is fantastic, Moritat does it all from pencils to coloring. Start reading this title, you will be glad you did. Starkings tells a great story and Moritat's art is the best around. Yes I am biased since I have met and become friends with both of these talented gentlemen but it was their work that made me and keeps me a fan of theirs. This is issue #1 of eleven so far so get them all and enjoy. The collected first seven issues are available in a beatiful hardcover book if you dont want to hunt down the individual issues. But whatever way you get them, just get them and start enjoying a great read and no I dont work for or make any profit from this book. I'm just a fan who enjoys reading and seeing fantastic art on a great book.

I was going through withdrawal until I received my Elephants calendar; it is terrific!

To call this book "colorful" is an understatement. Philippa-Alys Brown's watercolors are vibrantly rich, catching and holding the gaze of child and adult alike. Her illustrations are a bit stylized, but in my assessment, this adds to the imaginative charm of the book. The verses that she has chosen are all short and fun, blessedly lacking the stuffiness of some children's anthologies.

Contrary to the review quoted above, all of the depictions are of animals (unless, perhaps, the one of the snail doesn't qualify). I can't imagine, either, a child becoming overwhelmed by them. They are, though, compelling, interesting, bright and detailed.

This book is a favorite of mine and my four children.

Paul Kantner wrote a rock song once entitled "When I was a boy I watched the wolves", a song which kept returning to my conciousness whilst I read this tragic book.

The book recounts the tale of the demise of the African elephant as a consequence of state action. Not the states who's boundaries hold these wonderful creatures but the states whose representatives come together in a United Nations organisation called CITES with the declared aim is to protect endangered species.

I sympathise very strongly with that motive as I believe as an individual that there is a reason for the diversity of the planet and that ecologically there is much interdependence between and among species. I am old enough and educated enough to know that there are external forces which prevent us as a species for preserving all other life intact and that choices must be made. For those reasons and others I weigh all attempts to preserve species with care.

Alas, in the real world there are politics and power which intrude violently with our human sympathies. In this particular case the book throws into sharp distinction the way in which African states and their peoples are forced to conform with the requirements of the wealthier, more powerful governments and their non-governmental organisations in accepting policies which are detrimental to them on the spurious grounds thatthe western governments know best how to safeguard their precious, indigenous wildlife. Subtle threats to aid and investment are sufficient to keep the African nations in line even though their track record may show that they have successfully resisted allowing the African elephant to become extinct. Indeed one of the peversities of all of this is the fact that it is western demand for ivory which leads to the call for a ban on the trade in ivory which is controlled by a western agreement and forced upon unwilling countries.

Elephants and Ivory makes a compelling case against the CITES agreement, preferring to draw on the research of the property rights field to show how private ownership and management of these scarce resources can lead to a more beneficial solution. During the development of their argument the authors show how the theoretical framework upon which the CITES agreement is based is fatally flawed and which achieve the opposite effect to which it is superficially intended.

In the years since this excellent little book was published it has become clear in a number of conservation areas as well as this that all bans do is to raise the preice of the product in question which in turn makes it more profitable for more suppliers to enter the market increasing both risk and reward but also enforcement costs while resulting in death and moving closer to species extinction.

I would strongly urge anyone interested in conservation or indeeed just the well being of animals to read this book. Perhaps there are exit ramps off the road to hell.

Text heavy ELEPHANTS has lots of information! There are three or four paragraphs on each subject covered. Starts with "Fast Facts" to grab the reader's attention. Photos are of good quality and some are labeled. Details differences between Asian and African Elephants, food, habitat, life cycle, herds, etc. There is an activity suggested, a glossary, additional resource lists, and an index. Karen Woodworth-Roman, Children's Science Book Review

I'm the (volunteer) head librarian at my kids christian school. I bought the whole Giant Animals series and the kids loved the color photos, easy to read text & each book contains a small glossary of words and it tells them how to pronounce them. This series is also on the Accelerated Readers program which many elementary schools participate in. Well, worth the money on this series!

Simple book design, good quality photographs, and well written. Covers the basics of habitat, African/Asian, characteristics, trunks, etc. Includes some interesting elephant facts. For example, elephants can't jump. There is a glossary, web site list, and index. Karen Woodworth-Roman, Children's Science Book Review

Compiled and co-edited by Chyristen Wemmer and Catherine Christen, "Elephants and Nature: Toward a Morality of CoExistence" is a fascinating history of human and elephant interactions that blends science, nature and ethics into a complex and informative discussion powered by an international team of experts who review the history of human-elephant relations and its impact on elephant, human, and the world. Any holding strong in elephant natural history will find it an important review of the world history of the elephant, its use and abuse by humans, and the joined issues of habitat use and impact. A powerful title, "Elephants and Nature: Toward a Morality of CoExistence" deserves a place in not only college-level natural history libraries, but in collections strong in ecology and ethics.

This is a great book for kids, and adults can learn from it too. It is a small book, but do not be deceived by the size because it is really a little gem. It contains little stories, anecdotes, and poems about elephants. My seven-year old granddaughter loved it. The author was inspired to write the book because of his love of elephants, but this would be a great series for all kinds of animals, and a great teaching tool.