The Elephant's Friend

K-Gr 3—Whimsical, illustrated retellings of eight folktales. Though readers may not recognize these particular stories, well-known themes are all here, such as trickster characters (a rabbit convinces a lion to leap into a well to attack his own reflection in "The Foolish Lion"); tales of friendship (a dog and an elephant form an unlikely bond in the title story); and cautionary tales about greed (in "The Golden Swan," a woman plucks all the feathers from a bird, only to find them worthless in the end). By breaking the plots down into comic booklike panels and relying on the symbols of sequential art (a rain cloud over an elephant's head denotes anguish, action lines imply movement), Williams makes these potentially unfamiliar tales accessible and fun for young readers. Appropriately, characters are cartoonlike, with exaggerated facial expressions and postures. Busy, patterned backgrounds and intricate page borders rendered in brightly hued gouache and ink let these stories retain a traditional Indian tone. The text within the narration boxes and speech bubbles is concise. However, matching the comic-book format, a sly thread of humor consistently runs through these tales, such as a hungry crocodile breaking the fourth wall to quip, "Maybe I could eat a reader instead." Williams never skimps on the quirky details, and there's plenty to notice here on second and third readings. An enchanting addition to any folktale collection.—Mahnaz Dar, formerly at Convent of the Sacred Heart, New York City