I Wish I Had an Elegant Elephant

Deborah Dowson is a children’s librarian in Pickering, Ontario.

This ABC book uses an animal theme. The alliteration is good and the
choice of vocabulary and around-the-world settings unusual (e.g., “I
wish I had a Hefty hippopotamus ... we would hang-glide in the
Himalayas”); the repetition is an expected structure for this type of
book. The illustrations, however, are simplistic with three or four
colors used and not much detail; they do not appear polished but rather
quickly done. Considering the many ABC books available, this one is not
a first-choice purchase.