Where's the Elephant? by Barroux

Egmont, 2015. ISBN 9781405276481
Picture book. It starts as a simple hide-and-seek book with the reader encouraged to find the elephant, the parrot and the snake amongst a forest of trees of all shapes and sizes and colours. Turn the page and the same challenge applies - but this time it's a little easier because some of the trees have been chopped down. And on the next double-spread it is easier again as even more trees have disappeared. And then, where the trees were a house appears and then another and another. And so it continues until there so many houses and buildings that there is just one tree, and the elephant, the parrot and the snake are clearly visible enclosed in a fence with Zoo on it. Until they take matters into their own hands.
Stunningly illustrated by this award-winning French illustrator and inspired by a visit to Brazil where he saw the forest set alight to provide space to plant soy beans as well as the concept of Where's Wally?, in some ways the theme of this wordless text is akin to that of Jeannie Baker's Window. The encroaching of civilisation and its impact on the environment and the creatures within it is explored in a way that not only the youngest reader will understand but which will serve as a springboard for more mature readers to investigate.
The colours and shapes of the lush forest evoke positive emotions but as the white of the cleared land and the muted tones of the houses and buildings take over the pages a sense of sadness takes over. There are no words - they are not needed.
This is the perfect adjunct to a theme of Change, particularly if the focus is on how humans have an impact on the environment and the needs of creatures that dwell there. Given Australia's poor record of stopping species becoming endangered or even extinct, this is a focus area that demands attention and where better to start the appreciation of what we have than with the very young?
Barbara Braxton