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I was initially drawn to this book because of the beautiful art on the cover. In gorgeous water-color, it depicts a young girl and an elephant, both happy in each other’s company. The publication page has a very nice dedication on it as well as a note about the location where the book takes place. All in all it seemed like a very pleasant book.

After reading the story through a couple times now, I am still at a loss as to who this book is meant for. The story is of a young girl named Sieta who moves to a village named Qolweni Township in South Africa after both her parents die of AIDS. She lives with her aunt and the first half of the book is dedicated to all of Sieta’s sad memories of her parents and their death. She cannot get comfortable in her new home and she seems to have lost the ability to be happy or friendly. Then one day she and her class visit a nearby elephant park where she meets a young elephant named Satara who is also an orphan. Through her interactions with this young elephant, she is able to see that she is not alone and it is alright to start creating new memories and happiness without her parents.

The story is touching and the sentiment is certainly well meant. I can’t even imagine what it would be like to go through what Sieta has gone through, and I am sure that kids have a terrible time learning to live again after the loss of both of their parents. However, I just don’t think this is the book I would read to a child after the loss of their parents. And I am also not sure if I would be that comfortable introducing a child to the ideas of AIDS, being an orphan, and life’s ability to turn your world upside down through this single picture book.

I know that there is a movement in children’s literature to avoid overly sheltering kids and not preparing them for the hard knocks that life can dish out. I am not, however, that excited to try to introduce them to ALL of the bad things that can happen in one fell swoop. It is important for kids to learn about tragedy but despite its happy ending, I think this book might include just a bit too much. If picture books are meant primarily for the Easy Reader Crowd and younger, I think that this book might be too ambitious in its scope. It is terribly hard to find the right balance of too much sadness and still getting across the ideas that you are aiming for.

If I was to use this book in a library setting, I would try to be very careful about who I gave it to. Perhaps if picture books started to be used more in middle schools and high schools as a multimedia source of education, then this book would find a home, but for now, I would not expect it to fly off the shelves.