By- Jennifer O’Connell
Elephants Remember – A True Story (of a touching and deep connection.)
The book, Elephants Remember- A True Story by Jennifer O’Connell, is an exceptional story about a touching and deep connection and animal behavior, that is a mystery beyond human knowledge. It is about the friendship between, Lawrence the conversationist, who owned the reserve in South Africa, and ‘Nana’, the elephant herd matriarch.
Poaching is a constant threat at Thula Thula reserve, at the Zululand wildlife conservancy. To find themselves a safe place, a frightened and distressed elephant herd, breaks out from a reserve. The ranger reaches out to Lawrence Anthony to save the elephants. Lawrence brings the elephants to Thula Thula and gives them a home. However, when the herd broke out again from Lawrence’s reserve, he had to try a different strategy to win over the elephants trust. As the elephants facing north ward, were about to plan an escape again, Lawrence intervened, despite the danger of getting trampled.
In the book, Elephants Remember- A True Story author illustrator Jennifer O’Connell, through Lawrence, reiterates and inspires us to ‘listen’ to people and animals, and to our conscience and inner guide.
“Nana, please. Stay. You’ll be killed out there.” With deep connecting voice, Lawrence pleaded the elephant herd Matriarch, whom he fondly called, Nana to stay at his reserve, Thula Thula. ‘Nana’ turned and led the herd back into the bush. Lawrence listened keenly to the elephants and came to be known as the ‘Elephant Whisperer’. He built a fond connection with the elephants as he, greeted them every day, fed them with alfalfa bales, shared stories, songs, and secrets to them. ‘Nana’ the elephant sensed Lawrence, and in response rumbled back at him.
When Lawrence would go on trips, the herd would discern when Lawrence got back home and would come to meet and greet him. As the Thula Thula conservancy grew, more and more elephants were added in the herd. The elephants felt safe and protected. However, one day when Lawrence suddenly died, something bewildering happened. It was an exceptional animal behavior beyond human understanding.
- The book Elephants Remember, teaches its readers, the power of communication and building trust. It inspires to listen to our inner voice and of other beings.
- The book teaches us to pursue our passion, like Lawrence who was committed to the conservancy and the elephants.
- This book is also about meaningful connections built with animals, that last for a lifetime.
- The book Elephants remember, gives a profound message about poaching. It talks about how animals are highly vulnerable to poaching and are killed illegally for their ivory tusks and teeth.
- The book Elephants Remember- A true Story by Jennifer O’Connell, comes with many fun facts about elephants, like what do elephants feel, how do elephants communicate with each other, do elephants celebrate birthdays and more. The author talks about Lawrence, the passionate conservationist, how he operated Thula Thula, the wildlife conservancy, and how he cared for the elephants in his reserve.
- Book based activities: Pre-school to Early Elementary:
- Friendship Snack recipe: You can inspire your little one to create a friendship snack using the friendship traits learned from the book,
(Recipe ingredients- Kindness- A medium bowl, Trust- whole grain cereal, Sharing-dried fruit of choice, Caring-Nut butter or Nutella, Love- m&m’s. Mix all together to create a friendship snack.)
- You can inspire your elementary readers to reflect, recollect and write a response to this story. Before reading talk about the plot, the different characters, and the settings of the book, Elephants Remember. Your reader can record facts about the author, feelings about the characters, plot, settings, and thoughts about the issues raised by the book.
- Additionally, classrooms can use Story Maps, to graphically organize elements of the narrative like story’s plot, settings, problem, solution.
- About the Author Illustrator: Jennifer O’Connell, author of the book, The Elephants Remember, A True Story, is a New-York times bestseller and a winner of the Green Earth Book Award. She loves to paint and present workshops on creating picture books.
- Other Fun Facts about Animals
- https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals
