I received The Last Elephant Parade for review with my children. This is such a neat book! We also received the accompanying activity book. Both are large-sized paperback and decent quality.

In this book, you get to hear a story from the elephant's perspective of when they were a part of a great circus.  The story is told from Magnus (the old elephant) to a young elephant.  Many years ago, the circus conductor was kind and loved all the animals very much. He was especially fond of the elephants.  Everyone loved being a part of his circus. He married and had a son, but his wife left with their son and never returned.

The man waited for many years for his son to return to take over the circus and one day he finally did. But he was a changed, wicked man and abused the animals and put out the lead elephant’s eyes when he dared to disobey him.  He also placed hisfather into captivity.  All the animals were angry and sad.  They no longer loved the circus.

Then the elephants go on to stage an escape and rescue the old man. The blind elephant leads the escape. They travel until they come to an elephant sanctuary far away and there, they live out their lives happily.

  The coloring book has pictures to color from the book. The book speaks of conservative practices and how certain practices are destroying animal's homes.  It was the perfect opportunity to talk about these different topics with the children (conservation, wise land use, animal treatment, etc.…).

We all enjoyed it and I read it to my children multiple times!

-Product review by Jenny Underwood, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, April 2020