This is an absolutely delightful comic tale of a rather cheeky phantom elephant who is driving a little girl completely wild with his exploits. Full of hilarity, action and adventure until she discovers what he’s frightened of. Simply but brilliantly told coupled with some stunning illustrations. (0-5)
Judges' comment:
A very imaginative book of real charm and freshness, rampant with pearly elephants on parade, and beautifully drawn humans. It has a lovely 1980s disco feel, complete with a whiff of Art Nouveau. The illustrations convey a wonderful sense of movement, size and scale and there is so much detail here: every single inch of the page is covered. The inter-generational teamwork conveyed is great, and there are lots of in-jokes to enjoy.
The wryly comic tale of a small girl plagued by a mischievous 'elephantom' who rides up and down the stairs at night on a scooter, eats all her peanut butter and has his friends over for rowdy parties. When her parents don't believe her, the little girl finds a sympathetic ear in her Gran, who has a plethora of phantom pets of her own. Grandma directs her to a shop run by 'Spectral and Sons', who present her with a box tied with ribbon. When she returns home the elephantom is having fun piling up the furniture. The girl opens the box to reveal a...mouse-phantom! Elephantom disappears squealing in fright ...to take up residence next-door, where he begins to pester a new family!
Ross Collins' primary 1 teacher, Mrs Spears, told his parents that he should go to art school. 13 years went by until he was finally 'old enough' to get into the Glasgow School of Art. Can you believe that? – 13 years. On graduating he won the Macmillan Prize for his first picture book. Since then he's illustrated over 100 books for children and written a few of them too. Several of them have won enormous glittering awards which he keeps in a box in Latvia. Ross' book The Elephantom was recently adapted into a critically acclaimed play by those clever people at the National Theatre who made that 'War Horse' thing. When he's not creating children's books he enjoys working on character development for animation studios like Laika and Disney. He also likes walking in the Scottish glens with his dog Hugo, who is an idiot and his partner Jacqui, who is not.
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