When you are halfway listening to someone read a book to a group of kids, you certainly do not expect to hear “And they spanked him for a very long time” to come out of the readers mouth, But that is exactly what happened this morning. As a daycare provider I expect to get a surprise every day, some are good and some are bad. I’m considering this book, today’s surprise and it is UNBELIEVABLE!
After I snatched the book away from my assistant and read it to myself I was shocked! How could this be a children’s book? The Elephant’s Child is the book I’m talking about, copyright 1989. It’s a story about a curious little elephant who asks a lot of questions. He asks why the ostrich’s feathers grow just so, and why the giraffe has spots, The animal’s reply? They SPANK him! So the curious little elephant sets off to find out what crocodiles eat for dinner. He gets spanked along the way by random animals and almost eaten by the crocodile, who just ends up stretching out the elephants nose into a trunk. When the elephant returns home, the animals try to spank him again but I guess he has had enough because he fights back and throws a monkey into a beehive! Another elephant notices his nose is different and tells him “It is very ugly”, so our curious little elephant says” yes, but it useful” and he spanks all the animals with it for a long time! End of the story, all the other elephants want trunks too, so they hurry off to get them from the crocodile.
WOW! I can’t even believe this book! I guess back in 1989 it was normal to spank kids for asking questions? Can you even imagine? If you are looking for a book to teach your kids that physical violence this would be the one, bullying someone who looks different is acceptable, and that the saying “an eye for an eye” is the way to do things, then this is the book you are looking for!
Considering I was four years old when this was published, maybe I do not remember how people were raising up their children, but this just goes to show how the times have changed! The worst part, this book is a “Read With Me” book, and it has tips for parents in the beginning to have your child follow along and say the word when they see the pictures!
Next time I get a box of books from a garage sale, I will make sure to actually read each and every one before they go on my bookshelf. I wouldn’t want my daycare kids to turn into a bunch of crazy spanking machines! ( )

This is a hilarious take on the traditional lessons-learned children's stories. The Elephant's Child was a short-nosed creature that was always curious, but for every question he asked of a relative he got spanked. At one point he wants to know what crocodiles are and what one would have for dinner, gets spanked, but finds out where to go to find a crocodile. He journeys across Africa and finds one. As illustrated on the story's cover, the Elephant's child had a tug-of-war with the hungry crocodile. He returns home with a new, stretched out nose and can spank everyone else as they had spanked him. For a change the child isn't the one who needed to learn a lesson. I could almost laugh, imagining a child going around spanking all the adults that spanked him for asking any kind of question. Talk about setting an example that came around and got you in the butt. ( )

Because of his "satiable curtiosity" about what the crocodile has for dinner, the elephant's child and all elephants thereafter have long trunks.

A really fun book I read with my youngest son. ( )

A short and cute book. It was well illustrated. A little short on the scientific basis but it is a children's book. Thus, we lie to them. ( )