Teamwork and cooperation trumps individualism and selfishness in this very funny (and incredibly apt for parents of siblings) fable of the Elephants and the Mice.
5 Elephants in the forest LOVE fruit and then they come across a beautiful new tree pendulous with lovely fruit and they struggle to be the winner of the bounty all the whilst the mice work together as a team.
This story reminiscent of Aesop’s Fables shows that even against bigger and more powerful single entities that by working as a team even the littlest and underestimated groups are more effective working as a team to reach a goal than be divided and selfish.
The art is beautifully playful with lots of use of scratchy texture and depth despite a lot of white space employed, the page never looks ‘empty’ and the Elephants are exceptionally expressive from increasing agitation of MINE to resignation.
This is such a fabulous tale for use in various settings at home to talk about working together and not being selfish or in educational settings as a readaloud, as circle time read&discuss or on the power of teamwork over determined isolationism!
Rather a parable for the political climate too.
The Fae really do like this book even though Littlefae is sharp enough to know I’ve got this with her and her sister’s sibling rivalry in mind, the cries of ‘Mine’ resound in this house daily. Littlefae thinks this book is very funny, likes to pretend to be an elephant, but I think it may be sinking in as their simultaneous and parallel play ‘seems’ to be stretching in length before the inevitable, which to be fair, she is 5 and still learning. Either way it’s a lesson I hope drip feeds into their relationship!
That Fruit is Mine by Anuska Allepuz is published by Walker Books
