An Elephantasy

The fact that a girl is taking her geranium for a walk (the way she does every Thursday) is not the most unusual thing that happens on the first page of this book; there's an elephant on the doorstep. So far, so curious. The elephant has written a note, his name is Dailan Kifki and he has been abandoned by his owner. The girl agrees to take him and feed him gallons and gallons of oats soup. Then a tree grows under him in the back garden and a fireman builds him wings to fly down with. But when they fly off together everyone is worried about how they will ever find the elephant again, except the girls' mother who is worried they will never see the fireman again, because he really seems like a good marriage prospect for the girl.

A warm and witty voice add some character to this bizarre series of events that goes from the wonderful to the weird and then quite some way beyond it. It's madcap mayhem that turns into a crazy caper when everyone gets in on the act of tracking down the missing elephant. Children with an inclination towards the surreal will enjoy the limitless strangeness of this story and parents will warm to the charming narrator.