*How Elegant the Elephant by Mary Ann Hoberman

How Elegant the Elephant teams a beloved poet with a Caldecott-honor author to create a winning collection of animal poems.

*How Elegant the Elephant: Poems about Animals and Insects by Mary Ann Hoberman, illustrated by Marla Frazee. Little, Brown, 2025, 79 pages.

Reading Level: Picture Book, ages 4-8

Recommended for: ages 3-10 as a read-aloud; 7-up for independent readers

In her Introduction, Mary Ann Hoberman reflects on her lifelong fascination with the animal world, which provided most of the material for her writing career. “My body of work spans over six decades, and for this collection, I gathered my favorite poems about animals and bugs from earlier works no longer in print,” as well as eight original poems. How Elegant the Elephant was planned and executed with Ms. Hoberman’s end in view, for she passed away in 2023. She was delighted when her friend and sometime collaborator Marla Frazee signed on as illustrator.

This is a delightful collection, both in text and art. The author recommends saying “an entire poem to yourself again and again, [until] you start to feel why the poet chose particular sounds and cadences.” That’s good advice for some these quirky verses, such as the Brachiosaurus: “This dinosaur is now extinct/ While I am still extant./ I’d like to bring it back alive./ (Unhappily I can’t.)” Or the giraffe: “One half/ of the giraffe is neck./ The other half/ is not./ Now, necks/ that are/ a half of you/ are really/ quite a lot.”

The whimsical illustrations help lead the reader from one poem to another and are worth closer examination on their own. Watch for the squirrels in bellhop uniforms (they work at the squirrel hotel, of course, but appear  throughout the book). In the penultimate illustration, a hippo photographer has posed all the animals who appear in the book in front of a giant globe (see how many you can name!). On the very last page, an elegant elephant hugs a startled zebra over the words, “Thank you, Mary Ann Hoberman.” This is a fitting final page to a six-decade career, and a treasure for the family bookshelf.

Bottom Line: Whimsical, lyrical verses to appeal to a child’s fascination with animals, and a perfect browseable read-aloud.

Also at Redeemed Reader:

• Reviews: Silly Eaters was Mary Ann Hoberman’s and Marla Frazee’s first collaboration. Megan also recommends the author’s You Read to Me, I Read to You series for beginning readers.
• Reflection: Gladys Hunt’s thoughts on Enjoying Poetry with Children.
• Resource: Too many poetry recommendations to list here! For more, see our Poetry search results.

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