Elephants Aloft

We just wanted to add our voices in support of this excellent children's book. My son and daughter (3 and 5) really enjoy this beautiful and heartwarming story, and we highly recommend it. Great for entertaining, and for teaching toddlers and preschoolers positional prepositions! Well worth the price.

A preposition is a "function" word that typically combines with a noun phrase to form a phrase which usually expresses a modification or predication. However, in "Elephants Aloft" prepositions like "above," "between," and "below" are not combined with noun phrases but rather with delightful illustrations of elephants in a balloon. Now, if a picture of a pair of elephants in a balloon is worth a thousand words, then there would be reason to believe that in those thousands words there would be at least one noun phrase. Written by Kathi Appelt and illustrated by Keith Baker with pictures done in Liquitex acrylics on illustration board, "Elephants Aloft" begins before the title page with Auntie Rwanda in Africa sending a letter to her nephew and niece Rama and Raja in Asia. If young readers do not know the different between an African Elephant and an Asian Elephant, then this is an opportunity for them to find out if they pay attention to the differences in the ears of the two traveling elephants and their aunt. Each picture of the journey has a single word, written large, and lots of details (the colorful bird that delivered the letter to Rama and Raja appears in each picture and young readers should enjoy looking for him). This book is ideal for beginning readers since it emphasizes a single word on each page and kids should be able to make the association between words like "beside" or "around" and the pictures of the elephants in their balloon going by the Taj Mahal or coming around a snow capped mountain. Granted, little kids are not going to understand exactly what a prepositions is (I had to look it up), but they will still pick up the idea that all of the words appearing in "Elephants Aloft" are similar in terms of how they function. Note: The back flap of "Elephants Aloft" says this was Kathi Appelt's first book. You should check out some of the other ones, not just the picture books intended for kids, but some of her poetry books intended for older kids and (dare I say it) adults as well, such as "Poems From Homeroom" and "My Father's Summers."

This is probably one of my top 3 favorite childrens books ever. I could sit and look at the illustrations for hours. It has a fun story using very few words. I have purchased many copies as baby presents and gifts and they are always greeted with delight.

My 2 1/2 year old enjoys reading this book, as do my husband and I. The pictures are full of detail, and each page allows for more than one discussion about the preposition word printed on the page. As the saying goes, "a picture is worth a thousand words" - we have a great time discussing each picture and talking about what is happening.

Apart from being able to create a new story at each reading, Darren (3½-years-old) enjoys playing "Spot-The-Groundnut" on every double-spread. The first person who spots each nut gets a treat - to eat a REAL groundnut! That's where the fun is... Watch out for the last nut!!!!