Ella The Elegant Elephant by Carmela D’amico and Steve D’amico is a fantastic story about a young female elephant who moves to a new place with her Mom and the stresses and fears that she encounters in her new school. The book beautifully captures the anxieties some children feel when placed in a new school and have to make friends. Ella is a very sensitive elephant that on the first day wears a hat that her grandmother has given her. This is a hat that is noticeably different – therefore making her an easy target for bullies. Ella is bullied by another elephant and through the lessons taught by her Mom, she overcomes this and proves that she is the better person.

Being a parent to a sensitive child alters how you percieve normal child behaviour. Both my wife and I have never been shy or influenced by other peoples opinion so to have a child that is, makes understanding how Cali feels a little difficult at times. Cali is five years old and as I was reading it I could tell that the underlying theme of independence and need for an inner strength against people that are negative was absorbed.

Thank you Carmela and Steven for making such a wonderful book and providing my daughters with a wonderful window into your imaginations.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!