Review - To Catch an Elephant

To Catch an Elephant
by Vanessa Westgate
Date: 2019
Publisher: Clavis
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 40
Format: e-book
Source: NetGalley

Laugh out loud - and learn!

“If you want to catch an elephant, first you must find out where elephants live . . .”

So begins this tale of a boy and his quest for a pet elephant.

But maybe catching an elephant isn’t as simple as it sounds . . .

A delightful and compassionate story for elephant lovers ages 4 years and up.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

At first, I was not loving this. I thought I'd stumbled across a big-game hunting guide for little kids! This is one of those books where it's important to read all the way through to the end so that you get the whole message; if I'd abandoned this at the halfway point, my view of it would've been a lot less favourable.

So there's this kid who wants to catch an elephant. So he heads off to elephant country and sets a trap. Then he somehow gets the elephant on a plane and all the way back home to his house. In addition to the neighbours not being very happy, the elephant's not very happy, either. He doesn't want to play in the pool or even eat. A quick visit from the elephant doctor reveals the problem: the elephant is homesick. So the kid takes the elephant back home, finds his herd, and says goodbye. The reader is left with the message that animals should be allowed to live freely in their own habitats. We can visit and look at them, but we shouldn't take them home with us.

The pictures are just okay here, as is the writing. There's one weird phrase, though, that tripped me up:

Remember, a suspicious elephant should not to be underestimated. 

That almost sounds like a bad translation of something! I don't know what's going on there.

Overall, this was just okay for me. If you're going to read it with a child, make sure you read all the way through; without the important message at the end, the rest of the book comes across as condoning big-game hunting.

Thank you to NetGalley and Clavis for providing a digital ARC.

Premise: 3/5
Meter: n/a
Writing: 3/5
Illustrations: 3/5
Originality: 3/5

Enjoyment: 3/5

Overall: 3 out of 5