Wednesday 14 November 2018
"The Elephant that Ate the Night" by Bing Bai and Yuanyuan Shen (Everything With Words Publishing)
If your kids love animal stories, it can sometimes be really tough to find a good story that doesn't veer off into 'cute' territory, with a fairly shallow and non-satisfying story that never seems to get anywhere.
Quite the opposite to what you'll find in "The Elephant that Ate the Night" by Bing Bai and Yuanyuan Shen, our first book review from innovative publishers Everything With Words.
Meet Zhazha the porcupine and his friends Duoduo the bear cub and Taotao the monkey.
The three friends live in the Dark Mushroom Forest. They hate the dark night and are afraid that it might SWALLOW them up.
Then Awu the elephant arrives. Awu doesn’t eat leaves, he doesn’t grass. He only eats dark nights. ‘It’s yummier than bananas, tastier than grass , and crunchier than bamboo,’ says Awu. ‘ And it’s got my name on it.’ And the darkness disappears up his trunk.
At first, Zhazha and pals think this is brilliant - there's nothing more to be scared of, no darkness lurking anywhere - just an endless day and plenty of time to play.
Of course their elation doesn't last, everyone begins to yawn and is too tired to play. Even the tigers lose their roars and the Dark Mushroom Forest becomes an annoying yawning place with no respite from the baking hot sun and bright light.
Is there any chance the mighty elephant can undo his mischief?
A brilliant bedtime story, particularly soothing for little ones who might still be a bit scared of the dark, with some really engaging animal characters to make you laugh and smile.
"The Elephant that Ate the Night" by Bing Bai and Yuanyuan Shen is out now, published by Everything With Words (kindly supplied for review).
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