This moving, beautiful book highlights the insidious practice of elephant poaching, in this case in East Africa. It tells the story of Ishi, a bull elephant who as a baby was the sole survivor of an horrific attack on his family, slaughtering the adult females for their tusks and the babies for no other reason than that they were there. A young boy, Kama, finds the little calf and goes to tell Jean Hathaway who runs an orphanage for abandoned baby animals. Jean’s husband, Russell, takes some helpers to get Ishi and bring him back to Jean.
In alternating chapters the story is told by Ishi as it would appear to him. He is heartbroken at the loss of his mother and his aunties and as he is the youngest elephant Jean has ever taken into her care it takes all of her skill and patience to find a formula to keep him alive.
By allowing the elephant’s thoughts into the story, Alex Lasker is able to presume the anguish Ishi is going through and the bewilderment he is feeling, the communication between the different elephant herds, the nurturing role mothers and aunties have in the development of the babies and, of course, the power of an elephant’s memory.
I have never been to east Africa but I have visited South Africa several times. Africa is a magical continent and it is important for the rest of the world to be aware of what is at stake when the existence of Africa’s unique and wonderful flora and fauna is under threat.
Alex Lasker has written with great sensitivity and, I promise, once you pick this book up you won’t want to put it down. A very definite 5 out of 5!
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