Just for Elephants Carol Buckley Hardcover, $16.95, ISBN 978-0-88448-241-3 9 x 10, 32 pages, color photography Children / Nature; Grades 3-6

Book Sense 2007 Spring Children's Picks List

Skipping Stones Honor Award for Nature/Ecology Books

KIND Children's Honor Book

Teachers' Choices
—International Reading Association

"Irresistible is not a word we . . . use lightly, but this book truly is hard to put down."
—Parents' Press

". . . some of the story's most engaging images depict Shirley frolicking about with her new herd. Even youngest readers will be able to intuit the anxiety Shirley faces on her first day in the wild, much like being the new kid in school."
—Publishers Weekly

"This amazing book reveals the complexity and intelligence of elephants. Jenny and Shirley's story shows us the strength of the bonds between individual elephants, their amazing memories, and their ability to feel and express intense emotions. From studies of wild, free-living elephants we know enough about their social needs to realize that we can no longer justify the practice of keeping elephants on their own or splitting up individuals who have formed bonds. I hope the example of Jenny and Shirley will make people stop and think before capturing elephants in the wild, wrenching them from their close companions, and then moving them here and there as if they were artwork on display."
—Cynthia Moss, Amboseli Trust for Elephants, Langata, Nairobi

Most elephants in America live in circuses and zoos, and their lives are very different from what they would be in the wild. But there's a very special place in Tennessee called the Elephant Sanctuary, where elephants can finally have the freedom to roam and have elephant friends. Why do elephants come to the Elephant Sanctuary, and what is their everyday life like there? Some are like Shirley, who performed in a circus before an injury forced early retirement and a transfer to a zoo. She lived at the zoo for many years and received good care, but she didn't have elephant friends. Then plans were made for Shirley to move to the Elephant Sanctuary, a place just for elephants. It was a big surprise to everyone when Shirley recognized another elephant when she arrived—they greeted each other with great excitement and joy and lots of trumpeting. Jenny had been a baby elephant at the circus where Shirley had worked so long ago. (Elephants do remember!) Shirley and Jenny spent that first night standing close, with their trunks wrapped around each other. And in the morning, Jenny led Shirley outside to explore the fields and ponds and woods and meet all the other elephants. Now Shirley has a special family, in a place just for elephants.

Carol Buckley is the author of Travels with Tarra, which tells the story of her life with one elephant and her decision to co-found the Elephant Sanctuary with Scott Blais. The Elephant Sanctuary now provides a home for 19 elephants on 2,700 acres, and is making room for more elephants who need to live in a place just for elephants. For more about the Elephant Sanctuary: www.elephants.com, www.twitter.com/ELEPHANTSdotCOM

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