FROM SERIOUS FROWNS TO JOLLY SMILES (reviewed by my daughter, Niamh, aged 10)
The Elephant, by Peter Carnavas, is a great book for young readers that have just begun to read chapter books. The magnificent plot of this story is about a young, sweet-hearted girl who imagines grief as big, grey animals.
She imagines her father has a big, grey elephant next to him at all times, because of his depression. Olive is an only child who lives with her grandpa, who brings colour to her world, and her father, with an elephant always beside him.
One of the problems in this story is her school is having a 100th birthday party at the school and everyone in the class has to bring something old and wonderful, kind of like a gift for the school. She can’t think of anything to bring because her father has still not fixed the old bike she was planning to bring. Giving up on that idea, she plans to take her jacaranda tree. She loves to climb up that jacaranda tree to escape the house sometimes. But then one day when she was trying to take her jacaranda tree, something terrible happens (and my heart fell, literally, when this happened).
Her and her loyal friend Arthur have a plan on how to get rid of the elephant, but the plan always seems to be changing. Her friendly and caring dog, Freddie, with an extra-long tail, growls or sniffles when she’s sad, cuddling up to her, making her feel better. There’s a very important surprise about Freddie at the end of the book, so make sure you get this book immediately and read all the way to the end, no stopping. Do not do anything else in that time sequence, just read!
The pictures are on a whole other level, as the extremely adorable dog pictures are amazing but simple. The elephant is drawn perfectly and I love the touch of a little top hat on top of its great big head. Also I love the use of the grey silhouette of an elephant at the start of each chapter. Amazing as it may be, the author is also the illustrator and this blew my mind, as the writing and illustrating are so inconceivably good.
The message that this book gives to all young readers is ‘It just goes to show, they’re not all grey’, meaning not everything is grey and gloomy and glum. Another thing it teaches you is that even when you’re sad, something can cheer you up.
This is a charming, heart-warming story that I would love to read again, and I’m sure that others will too. I would definitely give this four and a half stars and I think it will be an extremely successful novel for young children.