Elephant Fiction

Things are a little different in Aspen, Colorado, at the office holiday party for the real estate firm owned by Henry Calhoun and his wife, Claudine. Each Christmas sparks a contest among the already competitive staff to see who can buy the most coveted gift: the one that will get stolen the most times, the one that will prove just how many more commissions they earned that year than their colleagues. Everyone is puzzled when a strange gift shows up in the mix: an antique cowboy statue. In fact, the gift makes sense only to Henry and Claudine.

As the Second World War rages, the Japanese Imperial Army enters Burma, and the British rulers prepare to flee. But the human legacy of the British Empire will be left behind in the shape of 62 Anglo-Burmese children, born to local women after affairs with foreign men. Half castes, they are not acknowledged by either side, and they are to be abandoned with no one to protect them.

Echo in Pajamas is a quirky, heartwarming story about finding your voice in a world that never stops talking. When Echo, a quiet dreamer who prefers pajamas to people, accidentally sends a late-night voice message that goes viral, her world flips upside down. Suddenly, everyone wants to know the mysterious girl behind the words. But fame isn’t what Echo expected — it’s noisy, messy, and full of people who think they know her story.

The Poky Little Puppy: A puppy loves to dig holes under the fence, despite what his mother, his brothers, and sisters say. But the poky little puppy digs one hole too many in this charming story and ends up missing dessert. (Also includes Scuffy the Tugboat, Tawny Scrawny Lion, and The Saggy Baggy Elephant.)

With this collection of classic tales from India, you will learn about the playful, loyal, strong, loving, and wise gods, goddesses, and heroes of India. You will discover how the deity Ganesh, the remover of obstacles, got his elephant head; how the goddess Parvati won the heart of the great god Shiva; and how the goddess Ganga came to Earth from Heaven in the form of the holy Ganges River. You will discover how Krishna’s childhood as superhero and mischievous boy prepared him to fulfill his destiny as an avatar of the god Vishnu.

Ants and Elephants is a story about a 12-year-old boy named Wil who is bullied by Big Mike. Wil admits to being afraid of Big Mike, who has threatened to stomp him. The guy is twice Wil's size and has buddies only too willing to help him beat Wil to a pulp. Chloey, Wil's girlfriend, will not allow him to be intimidated. This savvy young lady teaches Wil psychological techniques that will help him stand up to his enemy.

Colton undertakes a cross-country road trip to his hometown in the vague pursuit to rekindle purpose in life. A cumbersome encounter with his sister’s new neighbor, Kit, leads to entanglement with threats to Kit’s life. An international cartel believes Kit holds documents her ex-husband placed with her.

The Elephant and the Castle is a short poem about friendship.

This is a story from the Just So Stories collection.

The common wisdom is that John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of Abraham Lincoln, was a failed actor and a madman. But the truth is that he was the matinee idol of his time, and the attack on Lincoln was not the act of a maniac, but part of a plan developed at the highest levels of the Confederacy. In Consider the Elephant, the story of John Wilkes Booth's life and death is told by his brother, Edwin Booth, the greatest Shakespearean actor of his age.

Gabriel the elephant dreams of being part of the lifeboat crew in his seaside town, but he is too young, and too little. But soon, Gabriel grows up and he is too . . . BIG! Disappointed but undaunted, Gabriel makes a plan. He hammers and chops, saws and sands, and builds his very own boat. One night, a great storm hits, and it's Gabriel's time to shine, pulling his oars alone against the crashing waves to save a crew in peril. Young children will love rooting for underdog Gabriel and will draw inspiration from his determination to achieve his dreams despite hurdles and setbacks.

The White Elephant looms large over the quaint suburban town of Willard Park: a gaudy, newly constructed behemoth of a home, it soars over the neighborhood, dwarfing the houses that surround it. When owner Nick Cox cuts down Allison and Ted Millers’ precious red maple - in an effort to make his unsightly property more appealing to buyers - their once serene town becomes a battleground. While tensions between Ted and Nick escalate, other dysfunctions abound: Allison finds herself compulsively drawn to the man who is threatening to upend her quietly organized life.

Two children embark on an extraordinary and mystical journey to discover their own pathways to peace. For children of all ages, this story invites creativity, imagination, and exploration of the beauty of world and the universe.

Deep underground beneath Perfect Pets, where children can buy genetically engineered "perfect" creatures, there is a secret lab. Barnabus and his friends live in this lab, but none of them is perfect. They are all Failed Projects. Barnabus has never been outside his tiny bell jar, yet he dreams of one day seeing the world above ground that his pal Pip the cockroach has told him about: a world with green hills and trees, and buildings that reach all the way to the sky, lit with their own stars. But Barnabus may have to reach the outside world sooner than he thought....

Didier is an elephant, but he isn't sure if he likes being an elephant all that much, with his big, awkward body and boring life of carrying and lifting things for his human owner, Mr. Rahol. He lives in Mumbai with his mother, who tells fantastic tales about living in the wild before humans captured her and turned her into a domestic animal. Neither she nor the rest of Mr. Rahol's herd of elephants, however understand why Didier would rather be some other kind of animal instead.

In the spirit of his New York Times best seller Love Poems for Married People and Love Poems for People with Children, as well as his wildly popular New Yorker pieces, Thurber Prize-winner John Kenney presents a hilarious new collection of poetry for anxious people.

Full of brilliant wit, dynamic energy, and a heavy dose of reality, Love Poems for Married People takes the poetic form, turns it upside-down, and leaves it in the dishwasher to dry. Inspired by one of the most shared New Yorker pieces of all time, this collection captures the reality of life once the spark of a relationship has settled - and hilariously so. With brand new pieces that cover all areas of married life, Kenney's wry observations and sharp humor remind us exactly what it's like to spend the rest of your life with the person you love.

Free passes to the circus seemed pretty exiting to Djuna and his friend, Tommy Williams, and things promised to be even more exiting when they met their old friends, Socker and Cannonball, at the entrance gate, but they were only the start of a hair-raising experience. The boys soon learned that the newspaper reporter and the state trooper were trying to uncover a pack of tricksters who were cheating the circus audiences.

Navsari, India. Penniless and trapped in a loveless marriage, Nirmala spends her days anxiously caring for her sick young son, Varun. Looming over Nirmala’s impoverished home is an imposing mansion built by her grandfather, and from its balcony her cruel aunt scorns them, refusing to help in any way. But when a mysterious letter addressed to her long-dead father arrives from Zimbabwe, it opens a door to a past Nirmala never knew existed and a future she never imagined possible.

Il était une fois un grand éléphant, fort comme une montagne. Il répondait au doux nom de Roméo et il était heureux. Enfin, presque... Il avait juste un petit problème. Un tout petit problème de rien du tout mais qui l'embêtait beaucoup. Il était timide, très très très timide.