Bashi, Elephant Baby

By Theresa Radcliffe

Book Overview

Can Bashi find safety in time?As the sun rises over the African plain, a mother elephant and her newborn calf, Bashi, follow their herd down to the watering hole. But they are not alone, for the water... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0670870544
• ISBN13: 9780670870547
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Viking Children's Books
• Length: 32 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 10.9" x 8.5"
• Age Range: 4 to 8 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 3

Customer Reviews

Bashi

Having spent a year in Africa, I can assure you that the illustrations so beautifully painted by John Butler, recreate the African plain. Most of the colors are yellows and oranges, with the brown mud. Bashi is born into an elephant family whose young females all protect and mother him, as is the norm. It is a good thing they do so, because Bashi's natural enemies are out there awaiting an opportunity. Unfortunately, they almost find one when little one day old Bashi is caught in the mud by the water hole. Luckily, his mother digs out around and under his feet and finally gets him free. The reader gets the idea of just how hard it is for the wonderful little creature to survive his first day of life on the African plain. Children loved it at a recent storytime I did.

Gorgeous illustrations, gripping story

This book provides a magnificent escape, with its astonishing illustrations that somehow really do capture the flat, endless essence of the desert savannah, the world the elephants and their potential predators inhabit. There are ordinary books with ordinary illustrations, and then there are books like this, with perfectly executed lines and colors. When you close the book, it is almost as if you've been to Africa, or seen a film of it. I suppose it is somehow like storyboards of a film. Anyhow, it is a beautiful, distinctive book that adults will like as much or more than child readers will. In addition, its story includes a deep motherlove between adult and child elephant that is moving in a calm, realistic way. A really excellent book.