I was recently contacted through Twitter about reviewing a children’s e-book. No surprise ~ I immediately jumped at the opportunity. The book is titled Mali the White Elephant. Not only do I love children’s lit, my oldest daughter happens to love elephants. I knew we would both enjoy working on this review together.
The author and illustrator of this endearing book is Barbara Pritchard. She currently resides in Hawaii, but previously lived in Asia for 20 years. That is where her love for elephants blossomed. In fact, on her website, Barbara explains how the story of Mali came to be. She says, “One day my friend Arlette and I were in Pattaya in the South of Thailand and we passed a new elephant kraal that had been set up for the tourists to enjoy. We checked it out and discovered they had a brand new baby girl elephant. She was adorable and her mahout had made a hat for her to protect her from the hot sun. We visited the baby elephant often when we were in Pattaya and brought her sugar cane which she loved.”
Barbara has truly captured her love of elephants in this heartwarming tale of a little elephant who does not want to leave home. Every child can relate to the feeling of wanting to experience something new and exciting, but scared to leave the comfort of family and familiarity. For this reason, children will find Mali the White Elephant a book with which they can relate.
In addition, Barbara makes Mail easy to identify with by detailing the young elephants strong love of dress up. Yes, Mali likes to adorn herself in beautiful flowers of all colors. She also wears a big, fancy sun hat that helps to protect her tender skin from the harsh sun. So cute!
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I thought that my daughter, “Junie B”, would, as well. I was not sure how she would do with an e-book of this length. However, she did surprisingly well. I showed her how to turn the pages and she dove in. She did not need any help until she wanted to print the last page of the book, which is a coloring page of Mali.
For children who cannot read, the e-book comes with an audio file read by Barbara. After Junie B read the e-book, we listened to the audio file. We both enjoyed Barbara’s reading voice. It is warm, inviting, and full of expression. Go here to hear a sample of the audio file.
Junie B’s Review
This is the first e-book I have ever read. I really liked reading on the computer because it is different and fun. Mali the White Elephant was a very interesting story. It had facts about Thailand and elephants. I like learning about other parts of the world. Here are my favorite parts of the book:
- In the end they find a solution that makes everyone happy.
- I liked how Mali was not afraid to dress up and be different than other elephants. She did not care what the other elephants and people thought about her.
- The drawings were so colorful.
- There is a coloring page to print out.
Giveaway
Barbara has offered to give one lucky reader a copy of this beautiful e-book. To enter, leave a comment about with whom you would share this book and what you think they would enjoy most about it.
For additional entries:
- Blog about this giveaway and link to this post. Then, come back here and leave a comment with a link to your post.
- Subscribe to this blog and leave me a comment to let me know.
- Tweet about it and link to this post. Then come back here and leave a comment with your Twitter name
- Kirtsy this giveaway. Then come back here and leave another comment telling me which one you did and your name there.
This giveaway will end on June 10. The winner will be contacted then and has 3 days to respond.
