Review by Booklist Review
Meet Elephant: he is fuzzy, he is enormous, and he plays a mean game of hide-and-seek. Roughly 10 times the size of his boy competitor and no stranger to the domestic realm (you better believe Elephant fits in the foyer), he offers but three words of warning before commencing a most captivating game: I'm VERY good. And he is. Whether he is cloaked beneath patterned curtains, obscured by a colossal lampshade, crouched under a violet coverlet, or propped behind a bony tree trunk, Elephant remains impossibly undetected. By fusing oil pastels with watercolor and digital media, Barrow invents an infectious world of warm, sprawling color. While a relentless array of overlapping hues and textures lends illustrations an airy momentum and almost woolly consistency, the book's dainty cursive typeface pairs wonderfully with Elephant's hulking frame, which is often the focal point of (at least) one half of each double-page spread. A charming combination of subtle humor and irresistible artwork makes this a gem of a debut.--Shemroske, Briana Copyright 2016 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-A game of hide-and-seek is the basis of this story, but with a humorous twist. An enormous elephant and a boy with scribbly brown curls are the players. Before they begin, the elephant discloses, "I must warn you though. I'm VERY good." Readers will easily spot Elephant on each spread as he attempts to disguise himself behind the drapes, under a comforter on a bed, and under a lampshade. Children will revel in being able to spot the elephant while the boy searches fruitlessly. Attentive readers will notice the boy's dog sniffing the elephant out in every spread. The mixed-media illustrations work masterfully to tell the story alongside the brief text, which consists exclusively of dialogue. The dynamic backgrounds are splashed with watercolor, and the figures are given soft edges, lending a dreamy quality to the story. The impressive use of light and shadow and incorporation of reds, oranges, and purples add a richness to the pages that will transfix children. In the final pages, a new character and a funny twist will entertain kids. VERDICT This amusingly absurd story paired with the warm and wonderful illustrations will have kids coming back again and again.-Kimberly Tolson, Medfield Public Library, MA © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
A confident elephant ("Im VERY good") challenges a young boy to a game of hide-and-seek. The boy, with the help of his dog, searches for the elephant indoors and out with no apparent success, despite the elephants very obvious presence under a lampshade, inside a too-small tool shed, etc. Unlike the boy, viewers will have no trouble spotting the elephant (the dog finds the elephant easily as well), and they will find a lot of humor in the mismatch of elephant and hiding places. A twist ending -- a tortoise challenges the boy to a game of tag (perhaps a sequel is forthcoming?) -- enhances the simple humor. The pictures, softly impressionistic at times and in vibrant, splashy hues throughout, give viewers a sense of movement as the characters go from inside the boys house, where the presence of limited light casts shadows in dark rooms, to the sun-filled outdoors. The subtle differences between the straightforward portraits of the young boys (mixed-race) family that decorate the front endpapers and the sillier portraits incorporating elephant and tortoise on the back endpapers make this book a visual hide-and-seek game from beginning to end. celia c. perez (c) Copyright 2016. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A small child plays hide-and-seek with a surprisingly elusive (except to viewers) elephant. "OK. You hide," says the child. Says the elephant: "I must warn you though. I'm VERY good." The dark-skinned, springy-haired, and increasingly confused-looking child fruitlessly searches house and yard for the pachydermwho positively dominates each scene whether "hiding" beneath curtains, under a coverlet on top of the bed, or behind a skinny tree. Applying thin color to rough-surfaced paper with splashy, Chris Raschka-style freedom, Barrow supplies the questing child with parents (a biracial couple, to judge from family portraits on the wall), legibly hand-lettered dialogue, and a small dog who has no trouble at all seeing the elephant. A tap on the shoulder brings the game to an end at last, whereupon a tortoise's invitation to a round of tag presents an easier challenge. Or does it? "I must warn you though." Beyond the sheer absurdity, children will delight in details, such as the wide-screen TV the elephant holds in one scene, the child's dad so focused on the soccer game on the screen that he asks, "What elephant?" and the sly alterations to the family portraits on the rear endpapers. Younger audiences will be screaming "There it is!" from the get-go. (Picture book. 3-5) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
