The elephant's garden A traditional Indian folktale

Curiosity, greed, and contentment are a few of the themeslayered into this modern retelling of an Indian folktale. In it, Jasmine discovers a trespassing elephant eating her fruit and confronts him. He takes her to his garden in the clouds where the fruit is twice as large and much more beautiful, but completely inedible; the elephant's garden produces precious stones and jewels that are of no use to him. Jasmine tells her family, and, in predictable human manner, word about the riches spreads and results in the disastrous, greed-driven pursuit of the treasure. Eventually, a lesson about contentment is learned, and Jasmine's garden is appreciated even more. Young readers might be more captivated by the illustrations than by the story itself. In a style evocative of Matisse, Ray's collages are alive in color, movement, and texture, beautifully re-creating Jasmine's orchard brimming with exotic fruit. Pair this with other folktales about wise animals teaching foolish humans life lessons, such as Shobha Viswanath's The Monkey King (2014) or Mina Javaherbin's Elephant in the Dark (2015).--Chaudhri, Amina Copyright 2010 Booklist

Who or what is eating the best fruits in Jasmine's garden?The whole village knows Jasmine grows the best fruitapples, cherries, kumquats, mangoes, papayas, and morebut every morning she awakens to find the nicest fruits nibbled. She hides one night and sees an elephant fall from the sky to crash in her garden and start eating her fruit. She tells him to stop, and he apologizes. In an abrupt transition, she grabs his tail, and they sail into the night sky into his garden, where the fruits are hugebut made of precious gems and thus not good to eat. He gives Jasmine a giant ruby strawberry. When she gets home, she tells her family of her adventure. Naturally, they all want to see the garden. She agrees and swears them to secrecybut her little brother tells his friend, and soon the whole village knows. When the elephant falls that night, they all latch onto his tail in a chainbut alas, their impatience ends with everyone falling back to Earth. At least they still get to eat Jasmine's fruit, while the elephant evidently moves on to quieter gardens. British author/illustrator Ray's original tale seems to be set in South Asia. Her bright and vibrant illustrations feature brown-skinned people in saris and turbans and a brilliantly painted elephant; they swoop across the page and transport readers as would, say, a flying elephant. Readers who can get over the story's peculiar device will find a fine tale about the importance of keeping secrets and the dangers of greed. (Picture book. 5-9) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.