How to Be an Elephant - by Katherine Roy (Hardcover)

About the Book

The Sibert Award Honor-winning author of "Neighborhood Sharks" presents a nonfiction picture book that follows an elephant's growth from a newborn calf to a full-grown adult in one of the most socially and structurally complex family groups on Earth. Full color.

Book Synopsis

The savanna is not an easy place to live, even for African elephants, the largest land animals on earth. If it's a challenge for these 7,000-pound giants, what's it like for their newborn babies?

An infant elephant has precious little time to learn the incredible array of skills that are necessary to keep up, from projecting her voice across a 10-octave range to using the 100,000 muscles in her trunk to stay hydrated. But this giant-to-be has the perfect classroom--a family herd made up of her mother, sisters, cousins, and aunts. With their help and protection, she'll learn how to survive, how to thrive, and how to be an elephant.

Award-winning author-illustrator Katherine Roy's How to Be an Elephant delves into the intricate family dynamics at play in a typical African herd. Drawing upon the latest scientific research and Roy's own expedition to Kenya, and brimming with lush watercolor illustrations and detailed diagrams, this book vividly portrays the life and development of an elephant from an uncertain newborn into a majestic adult. As informative as it is beautiful, Roy's unique portrait of an elephant's life will captivate young explorers and animal lovers alike.

David Macaulay Studio

This title has Common Core connections.

A School Library Journal Best Book of 2017
A Horn Book Fanfare Best Book of 2017
A Chicago Public Library Best Book of 2017

Review Quotes

"The energetic illustrations are whimsical on one page, scientifically precise on the next . . . Roy reels you in with startling facts, then shows how a dominant species is really vulnerable, dependent on humans to choose to practice conservation." --New York Times Book Review

"Exceptional and arresting... Roy holds readers' attention with her approachable writing style and astonishing statistics."--Booklist, starred review

"A must-have."--School Library Journal, starred review

"Masterful." --Horn Book, starred review

"Immersive illustrations and careful attention to detail in both the text and art combine to create a rewarding study of a remarkable animal." --Publishers Weekly, starred review

About the Author

Katherine Roy is the award-winning author and illustrator of Neighborhood Sharks: Hunting with the Great Whites of California's Farallon Islands and How to Be an Elephant: Growing Up in the African Wild. She is also the illustrator for the Expeditioners series by S. S. Taylor and of Buried Beneath Us by Anthony Aveni. She loves science, history, and big adventures, and is endlessly fascinated by the way things live. A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, she currently lives in with her husband and young son in Oregon, where she's still learning how to be a human. You can visit her website to learn more about her work, her research, and African elephants.