Mr. Elephanter (review)

Happy are the "young and peppy elephanties" in the Elephantery, for Mr. Elephanter is here to care for them. And no wonder, since the good Mr. Elephanter starts out by cooking everyone banana pancakes, then takes them to the pool, the city, and the park (where he meets and passes the time with a now-grown former charge). Then there's a well-earned naptime followed by a lively playtime ("Mr. Elephanter pretends to be a tunnel, a tower, and a bridge. The elephanties crawl under, climb up, and march on top of him"), and then Mr. Elephanter heads home at the end of day, waved off by a herd of adoring elephanties. The text has the delicate effervescence of nonsense, which is, as usual when at its best, rooted in solid and realistic structure. It's not clear exactly what childcare system exists in the elephanty world, but Mr. Elephanter's daily duties are sufficiently analogous to those of a day-care worker or camp counselor to be understandable and sufficiently playful to be endearing. The illustrations employ gentle-toned watercolors and softly detailed pencil lines, with an enchanting toylike miniaturization in the bijou scenes. The landscape is inhabited by a happy mixture of human and animal characters, with many of the humans, like Mr. Elephanter himself, goofily bulbous of nose; the gamboling trio of little elephanties will make youngsters yearn for at least one as a playmate. It's original, it's funny, and it's filled with entrancing tiny elephants—what more could an audience want?