Elephants of Africa

by Gail Gibbons

Elephants are the largest land animals alive today. Intelligent and social, they are amazing creatures. Using her signature combination of clear information and detailed illustrations, Gail Gibbons presents important facts about elephant behavior, habitats, diet, and more.

Genres: Nonfiction, Africa, Picture Books, Animals, Science, Childrens, Nature

32 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2008

About the author

From gailgibbons.com: I was born in Oak Park, Illinois, in 1944. Even as a little child, I was always busy putting books together. Sometimes I would bind them with yarn to hold the pages together. I've always loved drawing and painting. I was also a very curious child. My parents tell me that I was always asking lots and lots of questions.

Later, I went on to the University of Illinois, where I studied graphic design. Then I moved to New York City, where I got a job doing artwork for television shows. Eventually I was asked to do the artwork for a children's show. While doing that show, some of the children asked me if I had ever thought of doing children's books. My mind immediately recalled how much I enjoyed doing that type of thing when I was a child. So I put an idea for a book together and right away a publisher bought it. That book was called Willy and His Wheel Wagon. Since then, over 170 books that I have written and illustrated have been published. The type of books I write are non-fiction books. This is because I love researching so much. I get to ask lots of questions, just like when I was a kid. I also get to travel and meet lots of interesting people. While doing research for my book Nature's Green Umbrella: Tropical Rain Forests, I traveled to two islands where there are tropical rain forests, Saba and Dominica. I also had a great time writing and illustrating the book. I get a lot of pleasure from doing the type of work I do.

Reviews

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

The always-reliable Gail Gibbons has updated her Elephants of Africa picture book, originally published in 2008, with additional information. As always, her detailed watercolor images fill each page with animals that move and almost seem to be alive. A good introduction to the subject, this picture book describes the characteristics of African elephants, their habitat, their methods of communication, and it even contains several pages devoted to various body parts, including their trunks, their tusks, their skin, and their teeth. Perhaps most interesting for young readers, the book also describes how elephants search for food and water and the threats to their survival. The last page of the book, a feature entitled "Elephant Tracks," contains factoids about these majestic and ever-fascinating creatures. This book would fit the bill for a third- or fourth-grade classroom library dedicated to the natural world and its living things. The text is accessible but not condescending, and the illustrations are visually appealing.

[Lauren Callaway]

This book is an informational book about elephants. This book gives the readers what elephants eat, where they live, how they live, and what they do during the day.

This book was well written. The author in the story only wrote specific facts about elephants without inserting any biases in the book. The pictures were specific to what the topic was about on that page and also had captions to add extra details to the pictures.

In the classroom, this book would be very useful during a nonfiction section of curriculum. The students could do different research ideas about different animals. This could be used to show the students how to write a nonfiction book, what is included like a glossary in a non-fiction book or used when talking about animals.

[JJ Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elephants of Africa by Gail Gibbons is a beautifully illustrated book that introduces the reader to the fascinating elephant. The books deals with the elephant from birth to death, discusses just about every body part on the elephant, and everything in between from eating and drinking to family relationships and dangerous encounters.
There were many things I appreciated about this book. One thing was the layout of the book. Each two page layout dealt with one topic of the elephant. There are two pages dealing with the elephant’s tusks, two pages dealing with finding food, two pages dealing with the family. The pictures throughout the book are labeled, which help build the reader’s vocabulary. While this book provides much of the basic information on the elephant, I feel the book could have been enhanced with additional resources for the reader to go to.
This book is ideal for a young reader as a way to introduce them to researching a subject. Readers will also enjoy the illustrations which add more depth to the information being presented in the text.

[Erin Reilly-Sanders · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I think that the art in here definitely demonstrates that Gibbons has improved significantly from her earlier work, I'm not a huge fan of this one. The text is decently put together, although I was confused if it intended to be linear or rhisomatic without headings for each page. My general concern is that there is just too much happening on each page. Yes, the lines are lovely and full of whimsical but realistic energy and the colors varied enough to present the same creatures over and over in different ways each time, but there is just too much on the page. The image behind the text hasn't bee significantly faded out, making it difficult to read and the extra bits of floating information often get lost on the page or blend in with the text at the bottom. I really just needed some reprieve from all the stuff going on to be able to focus on one thing at a time. Hopefully kids with multimedia trained attention spans will have an easier time than I.

[Carly Collett · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a really great book if you are wanting to teach your class on Elephants. It is completely full of facts that you may or may not have known about them. The pictures in the book were great. It went throughout the whole life cycle of an Elephant. There was additional information on the pages in the pictures that would answer any questions that students may have. It was extremely informational.

[Emily B · Rating 5 out of 5]

My six year old daughter had her school librarian help her select a book for us to read together about elephants because we both love them… this was truly appropriate for her to stay engaged while I read out loud for us and not get lost in “too much information”- just enough to encourage conversation and additional questions! She chose the rating, but based on our one experience with this book I’d have to agree! ♥️🐘📚

[AMY · Rating 5 out of 5]

32 pages. I really enjoyed reading about elephants. The illustrations are very colorful watercolor with lots of detail. There are lots of facts sprinkling the pages to keep a reader interested. This book could be used for student reports or recreational reading. Highly recommended. Bravo! Grades 3 and up would enjoy this one.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Gail Gibbons' books! This one while not written in a story form it is deeply informational but the way the information is arranged it is compelling. It will be the basis for a writing project for my sons as we are studying the continent of Africa this year.

[Shahd Rdawi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definately my favorite mammals 😊🏝🐘

[Lady reading under the Willow · Rating 3 out of 5]

Neat watercolor illustrations, lots of facts.

[Marissa Masterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elephants of Africa written by Gail Gibbons is an informational book. It is a book all about elephants. It educates the reader about their way of life, body, young, and how they eat. This book is very accurate on the topic. It is very informational and factual. The information is presented in a very organized way. Each topic about the elephants are titled at the top of the page and go in an order that makes sense. Each picture about their body are labeled. The format and design of this book is very appeasing to children. For starters, the cover of the book is very colorful and eye grabbing. The pages are filled with a lot of colorful pictures that are detailed. Fun interesting fonts are used as well. The authors writing style is very clear. A reader can tell the author is educated on this topic. She seems to be enthused about elephants through her writing style. She is very detailed and one thing I really enjoyed was how she defined words that children may not know at the tops of the pages. It is easier for students to understand the word if they see it in context and see the definition at the top of the page rather than flipping to the end of the book to a glossary. I really liked this book a great deal! It was a fun yet informational read. It kept my attention by educating me on fun facts that I never knew about elephants before I read this book. I would really enjoy using the book one day when teaching my students about animals.

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the best informational books I have read for kids, the illustrations are really crisp and clear, they add a lot to the story. You learn a lot about the African Elephant, what they eat, how big they get to be, how they travel in herds and the composition of their bodies.

This book is appropriate for ages 5+

I definitely recommend this book to kids for either a fun read or an educational one. I think I would do a similar lesson plan where I would read this to kids and allow them to ask questions along the way, and then ask them questions at the end. I would love to have images of elephants and trees for the kids to cut out and paste onto another sheet of paper to put together a sort of collage representing some of what they learned. I would have crayons available to them too so they can use their imaginations.

[Faith Barron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elephants of Africa written by Gail Gibbons is a wonderful Non-Fiction book for children to learn about Elephants. The illustrations are captivating as to draw in the students. Learning about Non-Fiction literature is very important for children. This book does just that, by describing every aspect of an Elephant. After reading this book the students would be able to discuss anyting about elephants, because this book covers it all. From the birth of an elephant, to its death and everything in between.

[Roxanne Hsu Feldman · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a book for very young children, this one is packed with great information. I learned a lot. Although it does not quite rise above the others in the same genre, I do appreciate the clarity of the text and the fluidity of the lines (in the illustration.)

[Katie Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is in depth about elephants and provides detailed pictures to help the reader. This book is a good resource for children who are studying elelphants. The book is set up to give information on an elephants skin, teeth, ears, eyes, trunk,tusks, food source, and where they are located.

[Seth Lebaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

This author write such informational books. Everything you want to know about elephants. This would help quench the informational questioner from time to time. I would use this book to help teach students about animals around the world.

[Kristen Sewell · Rating 4 out of 5]

The illustrations really add to this book. It relates and connects with it to tell the story better. It really goes in depth about elephants and I even learned things that I didn't know about elephants. Very informational!

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the information about typical elephant actions in this book. I am not crazy about the watercolor illlustration...too busy for my eyes, but a lot of great information and vocabulary like many of Gail's books. Lots of diagrams, insets, and information about eyes, teeth and skin.

[Lindsey Lubker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has excellent illustrations. It describes and discusses where they live, what, the eat, and much more.

[Kaitlyn Horvath · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like how they put words with their definitions. this is such a good book to teach with that will keep the students attention.

[Joan · Rating 2 out of 5]

a little too detailed for my four-year-old grandson, but he picked it out, so we read it!