One More Elephant

Children's Literature - Dia L. Michels

Elephants may be the largest land mammals, but their size is not enough to protect them from humans. One More Elephant is the moving story of the effort to save the elephants at the Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda. Once a thriving wildlife sanctuary and the most popular tourist destination in Africa, the park was nearly destroyed in a decade-long civil war. When the fighting ended in 1986, only 180 elephants (of the original 3000) had survived. Enter Peter and Wilhelm Moeller, brothers from Germany who came to film Uganda's wildlife. After seeing the park, they dedicated themselves to saving the dwindling elephant population. Their efforts are paying off-over 400 elephants now call the Park home.

School Library Journal

Gr 4-6-A heartening account of a major conservation effort at Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda that will be useful for environmental studies. Sobol tells in a clear but dry manner how German brothers Peter and Wilhelm Moeller began efforts to save the African elephant from extinction in 1986 after traveling to Uganda to film wildlife. The results of their work are encouraging: the elephant population has grown from 180 to 400, the new Department of Wildlife and Tourism has been formed, and hippopotamus and antelope herds are increasing as well. Two pages of facts about elephants appear at the book's end. The author's full-color photographs, though informative, are disappointing-they're not nearly as dramatic as those in his Seal Journey (Cobblehill, 1993). Nevertheless, readers will find the Moellers' successes inspiring.-Kathleen McCabe, East Meadow Public Library, NY

Ellen Mandel

Grabbing readers' attention with intriguing facts about elephants, Sobol expands his topic, directing youngsters to the cause of preserving the native environments of all African animals. The book highlights the Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda, where political unrest had bred illegal hunting that nearly annihilated the elephant population. This slight volume's 20accessible text and crisply focused photographs document how Queen Elizabeth Park was slowly restored, an effort that surely will appeal to ecology-minded readers.