From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 2-A story with origins in Nigeria. A young elephant that wanders deep into the African jungle while enjoying beautiful and tasty flower-trees cries for help when she steps on a thorn. Her rescuer is a valiant mouse that the elephant names Te Te Oka, which means "my big brother who is very small." The mouse returns the favor and bestows the name Tu Tu Eloka, or "my little sister who is very big," upon his new friend. The predictable plot has elements of Aesop's "The Lion and the Mouse." While the text is set off by colorful borders at the bottom of each page, the narrative does not reflect this liveliness and is not consistently expressive. Also, though the paper-collage illustrations are done in bold colors, the perspective is uneven; at times, the little mouse appears too large in proportion to his hefty "little sister." This tale of friendship is not an essential purchase.
Maura Bresnahan, Shawsheen School, Andover, MA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Maura Bresnahan, Shawsheen School, Andover, MA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Oyibo reworks Aesop's fable about the lion and the mouse, putting an elephant in the role of the lion. When the little elephant becomes lost in the dark jungle, she is befriended by a mouse, who not only makes her feel better emotionally but also removes a thorn from her foot. Because the mouse is all alone in the world, the elephant pledges to be his sister. The illustrations are colorful and lend a West African feel to the familiar tale of unlikely friendship. A foreword by the author explains how he became a popular storyteller in Nigeria, where he now lives. Marta Segal
