LITTLE ELEPHANT

The briefest of texts (by Hoban's daughter) interprets 20 photos showing a baby elephant in a rocky zoo enclosure leave his mother and venture into a pool ("First one toe,/then two./A big splash./Lots of bubbles"), enjoy the water, submerge, and laboriously clamber out and back to mom. Hoban's almost monochramatic photos—only a hint of brown in the background and the water's blue vary the subtly modulated grays of elephant and stone—are miraculous. While the story is told through the elephants' appealing poses and expressions, she also turns in gorgeous compositions of gleaming light and shadow and the great beasts' monumental forms; interacting harmoniously, each spread's two shots lead the eyes gently to the right. Stunning photography; enchanting book. (Picture book. 1+)