Elmer by David McKee

Those of you who know me well might be surprised by the fact that I've written about four books and not one of them has yet been about an elephant. If you have been hoping for an elephant book, today is your lucky day!

Elmer is different from the other elephants because unlike them, who are "elephant color" he is a multi-colored patchwork elephant. Elmer's personality matches that of his skin, he always plays great practical jokes, goofs off, and makes all the other elephants laugh. Even though the other elephants love Elmer, he feels awkward about his appearance, and runs away to find an elephant-colored berry bush plant that he uses to make himself elephant color and comes back to the elephant herd only to discover that his colorful personality can not be disguised no matter what happens on the outside, and all the elephants rejoice together.

I think that "Elmer" is truly a wonderful book. As passionately as I hate books that specifically deal with the moral of "it's OK to be different", I find that nothing at all annoys me about the way that this idea is treated in "Elmer". The book exists to tell a wonderful story, not to push a moral, and I think that makes all the difference. Additionally, if one does want to use a book to talk about the fact that "it is ok to be different" (whatever that means anyway), there are multiple ways to use the book to broach the subject in a way that allows all the involved parties to walk away and continue thinking about things, not memorize a bunch of meaningless platitudes and call it a day.

In addition to the good stories one finds in all the Elmer books, they are absolutely visually awesome.
Colorful patchwork does very beautiful and powerful things to my soul, and, when combined with an elephant of all things, it is absolutely perfect. In addition to the patchwork, the rest of the jungle where the elephants and their other animal friends live is wonderfully drawn as well, the vegetation is very Henri Rousseau with a magical twist.

While I have not read all of the Elmer books (there are probably about twenty by now, and more are still being written) I have liked all the ones I read. I also, (and this comes as a shock even to myself) really love all of the Elmer toys that have appeared out there in the last ten years, and there is quite a variety. I like them not just because of the book, but because most of the Elmer paraphernalia is actually tasteful, well made, and fun to see and play with. As a matter of fact a friend gave Miriam a stuffed Rose the Elephant toy a few days ago, and we've both been playing with her since. 

Have I ever mentioned that wheeled elephants is my greatest weakness?


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If you read the whole post and looked at the pictures, then I only have one more thing to add. There is no proof of this, and it is nothing more than a visceral association, but I feel that there is something in Elmer of the Little Elephant's Child - the one who was full of 'satiable curiosity, the one who asked too many questions, the one who went down to the very edge of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River all set about with fever trees and found out all about what the crocodile has for dinner.

You know the one, of course.
And I think that Elmer is his great-great-great-great-great grandson.