ELEPHANT QUEST

Following the successful format of their first collaboration, Gorilla Walk (1999), the Lewins share their four-day search to observe African elephants firsthand. The enthusiastic, conversational text, vivid with descriptive detail, relates each morning and late-afternoon venture within the Moremi Reserve in Botswana. Elephants elude them the first three days and the beginning of the fourth, but they encounter hippos, lions, kudus, wild dogs, warthogs, Cape buffalo, and giraffes aplenty. Then on day four—success: “Suddenly, shrill trumpets sound behind every tree. We’ve found the elephants at last! In a pool deep in the mopane scrub, the giants of this garden squeal and splash and flap their ears, looking as joyful as we feel.” The small field sketches, providing visual details of their adventure, are a perfect complement to the lush, realistic watercolor spreads of the wildlife in their habitat. A beginning hand-drawn map sets the location, and two pages of facts about these largest of land mammals and an index conclude the attractive package. A winner that transports the reader to an unfamiliar locale full of wonder. (Picture book/nonfiction. 6-10)