Elephant Island

A shipwrecked elephant makes his tiny island a home for the many friends who come to the rescue, in the new picture book from New York Times Illustrated Book Award winning author Leo Timmers.

Caught in a storm, Arnold the elephant washes up on a tiny island. Along comes Mouse in a little dingy and Arnold steps aboard…uh-oh! They use the wreckage to make the island bigger. And here’s Dog—can this boat take Arnold’s weight? Uh-oh!

None of the animals can save the shipwrecked elephant but each broken vessel provides new materials for another intricate construction. Wheels and pulleys create a Ferris wheel, an elevator, a waffle maker. All the animals work as a team to build increasingly intricate constructions that turn the desert island into a fun park city. Soon there is a whole community and enough space for everyone!

As with all Leo Timmers picture books, Elephant Island has many layers of discovery. Tapping into the childhood pleasure of contraptions, this cheerful picture book is full of complex and playful visual detail and humor that Leo Timmers’ readers love. Preschoolers who enjoy meccano and lego will find joy on every page with the creation of each new imaginative construction, packed with mechanical detail on bright double page spreads. Elephant Island is a runaway hit in Europe.

“Yet another triumphant experiment for the award-winning Timmers.”—The New York Times

Picture Book finalist, Teach Early Years Awards 2022.

Other books by Leo Timmers:

Monkey On The Run
Where Is The Dragon?
Who’s Driving?
Gus’s Garage
Franky
Bang!

Praise for Elephant Island:

“Yet another triumphant experiment for the award-winning Timmers.”—The New York Times, Best Children’s Books of 2022

“This light-tension, winking tale of a makeshift homecoming is sure to delight audiences at story time.”―Foreword Reviews, starred

“A picture book tribute to the power of collective, constructive play, and to heeding the call to freedom.”—Publishers Weekly

“Perhaps the best yet from Leo Timmers.‘—Top Children’s Books of 2022, The Listener

“The tender yet dynamic verbal and visual narrative never falters in this engaging picture book.”—Booklist

“A refutation for anyone who thinks their island is too full to accommodate outsiders.” —The Times, Children’s Book of the Week

“A picture book tribute to the power of collective, constructive play, and to heeding the call to freedom.” —Publishers Weekly

“The tender yet dynamic verbal and visual narrative never falters in this engaging picture book.” —Booklist

“A fascinating and funny tale. Hijinks ensue, with a plethora of brilliantly detailed boast for little ones to pore over.”—The Scotsman

“(a) unique nautical tall tale.” Reading Rockets, Summer Reading Guide

Praise for Leo Timmers:

Where Is The Dragon? “A lilting Seussian singsong, with wonderful, surprising rhymes, and little readers and their grown-ups will have a great time combining their voices and giggling through the proceedings.” —Kirkus Reviews, Starred

Monkey On The Run “The silly antics of the little monkey provide forward momentum, but the details in each illustration kept calling us back for a more thorough examination.” — A New York Times / New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children’s Book 2019

Gus’s Garage “Clearly, one animal’s clutter is another pig’s livelihood in this buoyant, rhyming tale.” —The New York Times

Who‘s Driving? “Belgian illustrator Leo Timmers creates a delightful play on the fable of “The Tortoise and the Hare”, which sees the hare driving a racing car.” — The Telegraph, Book of the Year 2020