THE LEGEND OF THE SLEEP-EATING ELEPHANT

In this children’s book, Kenyan villagers concoct different plans to stop a sleepwalking elephant from eating all their cabbages.

Illustrated in the graphic style of animated films, Williams’ story takes place in a Kenyan village of dark-skinned humans and anthropomorphic animals. One of the animals is Elephant, a hard worker whose hunger unfortunately sends him sleepwalking at night to devour more and more cabbages (“While still in a deep sleep, with his eyes still shut, Elephant got up, walked out of his hut and lumbered towards the cabbage field. He ate one cabbage and returned to his hut—all with his eyes still shut!”). The tale’s prose lacks punch and the repetition of Elephant sleepwalking each night and the other animals making doomed plans to stop him is more tiresome than inviting (“The next morning, no one—not even Elephant—noticed that one cabbage was missing from the field” and later: “No one—not even Elephant—noticed that two cabbages were missing from the field”). But Williams and illustrator Ezeokeke have worked cleverly to integrate the words and pictures and catch readers’ eyes, as in the page-splitting transition from night to day and the squeezing of text into the shape of a baobab tree. Ezeokeke employs orange, earthy colors to capture the haze of mythology and the spirit of the African savanna. The humans, while playing little part in the action, are colorfully portrayed in traditional dress. The animals generally lack personality (Elephant is a passive character and the Queen Bee’s attempts to be heard come across as anemic) but the tale is given a boost by the revelation that it has a factual basis. Young readers will enjoy this story about the escapades of a “mighty, sleep-eating Elephant.”

An engaging animal tale that’s sweetly illustrated.