Wild Summer Week Two: Elephants
Elephant shares big ideas for summer reading and play
Welcome to week two of the Summer Challenge, a free reading challenge all about pairing books with summer fun! If you’re new here, please jump right in! We are sharing book recommendations, discussion starters, activity ideas, and more now through August 11. Plus, we’re doing a giveaway at the end of the summer. Sign up today to be eligible to win!
I’m happy to introduce this week’s host, who is joining us all the way from the continent of Africa. She’s big, beautiful, and she loves to read. Please welcome my good friend Elephant!
Thank you so much! I’m excited to be here!
As you all know, I’m Elephant. You’ve probably seen me or some of my family at the zoo or in movies like Dumbo, Tarzan, or Horton Hears a Who! Those elephants are fun and all, but they aren’t exactly realistic. If you want to know real facts about elephants, you’ve got to go straight to the source. That’s me! So here are a few facts1 you might not know about elephants:
We eat a lot. A lot a lot. Usually around 300 lbs of food a day!
Eating so much means we…um…produce a lot of gas. You don’t even want to know how much, and honestly, I’m not sure why I even mentioned it. Moving on…
You can’t really see it from a distance, but elephants have hair from head to toe.
Elephants can’t jump. We’re the only mammal that can’t!
We may not be able to jump, but we can swim! We can even use our trunks like a snorkel so we can breathe in deep water. Unfortunately, no cannonballs for us!
If you’d like to know more about elephants, books are a great way to learn. There are lots of great nonfiction books about elephants, and some pretty good fiction ones too. I hope you’ll check some out at your library this summer! If you need ideas, I’m sharing a list of some of my favorites!
Read: Elephant’s list of favorites (or any other elephant book of your choosing)
What the Elephant Heard by Charlotte Guillain, illustrated by Sam Usher. This beautiful rhyming book is told from the perspective of a young elephant talking about Grandma and Great Grandma and how they always led the herd to water through various challenges, some caused by humans. It includes a few pages at the back of the book with elephant facts, how people try to care for orphaned elephants, and some information about how readers can help elephants as well as local wildlife.
How to Find an Elephant by Kate Banks, illustrated by Boris Kulikov. I love this book because it’s so fun and imaginative, and there’s an elephant hidden on most of the pages. Readers will have fun finding all the hidden elephants!
I Thought I Saw an Elephant by Lydia Nichols. Rebecca tells me that this is one of her grandkids’ favorite books, and it’s no wonder since it features a purple elephant! This is a “slide and seek” board book that little ones love to interact with.
Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss. I love this classic Suess book because it’s so fun to read aloud and, of course, the hero is a brave and honorable elephant.
Strictly No Elephants by Lisa Mantchev, illustrated by Taeeun Yoo. This is a super cute friendship story about a boy who wants to take his elephant to pet club, but the kids in the pet club don’t allow elephants! So he meets a girl with a skunk, and together they decided to form their own pet club.
She Leads: The Elephant Matriarch by June Smalls, illustrated by Yumi Shimokawara. This is a great nonfiction book all about how female elephants, like my own grandmother, lead their herds.
Baby Zoo Animals: Elephants by Josh Gregory. This is a fun book for little ones all about baby elephants and their lives in a zoo.
Get Out of My Bath! by Britta Teckentrup. This book is so fun because it’s about one of my favorite things: bath time! But it’s also an interactive book, which makes it even more fun!
The Water Princess by Susan Verde, illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds. This book isn’t about elephants, but I related to the human in this book because elephants often have to walk really far to get water too!
Middle Grade
The Magician’s Elephant by Kate DiCamillo, a magical story about family and believing in the impossible. This book would make a great family read aloud, followed up by a night watching the Netflix movie.
The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate. This is a book about a gorilla, but it’s also about the gorilla’s friendship with two elephants and a human girl, and how those friendships lead to a big change in Ivan’s life and helps him to see himself as the “mighty silverback” that he truly is.
Note: Some links will take you to the Read, Discuss, Do bookshop.org storefront. Purchasing a book from the storefront will support independent bookstores and help maintain Read, Discuss, Do at no additional cost to you.
Discuss
Have you ever seen an elephant in real life?
Where do you think a full grown elephant could hide?
Would an elephant fit in your living room?
What are the two different kinds of elephants?
What can an elephant do with its trunk?
Do you think an elephant would make a good pet? Why or why not?
Do you have a favorite elephant book? Is it fiction or nonfiction?
Do: Try one of these ele-fun activities this week!
Have an elephant-themed book + movie night. Horton Hears a Who is a good option. It’s fun to compare books with the movie versions. Plus, snacks! (Did I mention elephants eat a lot?)
Swim like an elephant! If you can, use a snorkel! Another good option is to play outside and pretend the garden hose is your trunk. Who will you spray with it?
Take a trip to the zoo to see elephants. If you can’t go in person, check out the elephant cam at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.
If you’re the crafty type, here’s a video tutorial for how to fold a cute origami elephant.
Listen to some elephant tunes:
Baby Elephant - Super Simple Songs
When I See an Elephant Fly - from Disney’s Dumbo
Download this week’s coloring page:
You can find the previous Wild Summer coloring and activity pages here!
We hope you are enjoying this year’s summer challenge! If you share about your experience on social media, be sure to tag us on Instagram and use the hashtag #RDDSummerChallenge2025.
Source: https://elephantconservation.org/about-elephants/25-things-to-know/