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Reviewed by:
  • Zola's Elephant by Randall De Sève
  • Deborah Stevenson
de Sève, Randall Zola's Elephant; illus. by Pamela Zagarenski. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt,
2018 [40p]
ISBN 978-1-328-88629-3 $17.99
Reviewed from galleys R 5-8 yrs

Our narrator knows that a new girl, Zola, is moving in next door, and that her mother and Zola's mom have already decided that the girls should be friends. The narrator is sure that's not going to happen, though, because Zola clearly already has a friend, an elephant who arrived in big box ("I know because I saw the big box. You need a big box to move your elephant"). Every sound she hears from next door suggests yet another delightful activity that Zola is sharing with her elephant and thus demonstrates she doesn't need a human playmate. Fortunately, the narrator finally overcomes her fatalism and pops over to Zola's house, whereupon she finds that Zola has no elephant and plenty of room for a new pal. The text's dive into social paralysis gives this depth beyond the usual new-friends story, and the gentle humor of the girl's hyperbolic fantasy offers some reassuring distance. Zagarenski's mixed-media art takes the whimsical notion and runs with it, with the narrator imagining a mistily dreamy wonderland sprinkled with stars and populated not just by a charismatic elephant but by other personable critters as well. These fantasy scenes contrast with the reality, wherein Zola sits lonely in a shadowed house amid boxes and the ugly noise of unpacking. Youngsters who've themselves convinced themselves of reasons not to make (or respond to) an overture will appreciate the validation and may be encouraged to move beyond the negative self-talk. DS [End Page 66]

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