You can't call an elephant in an emergency by Patricia Cleveland-Peck
Illus. by David Tazzyman. Bloomsbury, 2020. ISBN: 9781408880630.
(Age: 4+) Highly recommended. Filled with an array of situations
where an emergency worker is called for, this book, the third in the
series, after You
Can't Take an Elephant on the Bus and You
Can't Let an Elephant Drive a Digger, will have readers,
children and adults alike laughing out loud. The most unlikely of
rescue attempts are presented as an elephant takes on the role of a
firefighter, a sloth becomes a traffic cop, a chimp is a paramedic
and a panda takes the controls of a fire fighting plane. Children
will readily see the incongruity of these animals in situations
totally inappropriate for them. The contrast between the very
important emergency service workers' abilities and those of the
animals provides a wonderful way of teaching children the work these
people do. And how appropriate that this book has been published
now, when younger children are exposed regularly to images on
television of people in masks and scrubs. A most opportune book to
discuss with classes and at home, the illustrations will be pored
over by readers.
Of course you do not have lemmings in a helicopter rescue team:
those who drop the person being rescued are outdone by the others
that leap from the helicopter overhead. And the hen that
thinks she'd make a good police officer is so timid that the robber
has a smile on his face as he runs away.
Each double page has a four line rhyming stanza outlining the
inabilities of that particular animal for the job at hand, supported
by wonderfully vivid illustrations which will entice readers to look
more closely at the events being pictured.
Patricia Cleveland-Peck has published fourteen children's books as
well as adult books and plays. She returned to the world of
children's books with the bestselling You Can't Take an Elephant
on the Bus and You Can't Let an Elephant Drive a Digger
which, together, have sold over 200,000 copies. David Tazzyman is
the bestselling illustrator of the Mr Gum books, which have
won a multitude of awards, including the Roald Dahl Funny Prize.
David studied illustration at Manchester Metropolitan University.
The elephant books are just two of his books published by
Bloomsbury.
Fran Knight