Great Migrations: Elephants (National Geographic Readers Series)

Children's Literature - Marilyn Courtot

The National Geographic Channel offered a series titled "Great Migrations" and that in turn resulted in a number of early readers that are more like chapter books. As the note on the inside cover states "Children are naturally curious ....and curiosity is a powerful motivation for reading." Books like this one that provide easy to digest information with excellent full color photographs will answer questions and hopefully create readers. Elephants are the largest land animals and there are facts along with a photograph to bring attention to the elephant's major body parts and address their purpose. Large ears to help with cooling, tusks to help with digging and a trunk that is almost like a hand with two fingers at the end of it for grabbing hold of things. Elephants need lots of water and food. They are vegetarians, so when their water and food sources dry up they need to move to find other water and grasses. Elephants can drink up to sixty gallons of water a day. The herd consists of females, the oldest one being the leader and young elephants of both sexes. Once the males reach the age of twelve to fifteen, they leave the herd, females stay forever. There is much to learn about their migratory path and what the people of Mali and elsewhere have done to help protect the dwindling herds, but if we are to prevent these animals from extinction then more must be done. There is a glossary and index, so young readers could use this book for research and reports. Also at the top of several pages there are jokes or puns as an extra added attraction. While targeted to young readers, this book would be of interest to most readers and could be used for older students not reading on grade level and also in classes where English is taught as a second language. Reviewer: Marilyn Courtot