The (more than) Slightly Annoying Elephant

Books are a big deal in our house. We all love them, albeit for slightly different reasons. I like that they mean I have a little bit of time out. Abe likes the one on one attention from the reader. Bette seems to like the taste.

While I never read anything I don't have to teach more than once, Abe loves the familiarity of a story and will, like most kids, request the same ones over and over. That said, these favourites do change week to week as we get new ones in, rediscover old ones, and his play /social activities dovetail with certain story's characters, places and themes.

For a while now, The Slightly Annoying Elephant by David Walliams has been a forerunner for one of the two allowed bedtime tales. It's one Abe knows off by heart it appeals to him so much, and one that neither my husband or I, in contrast, are great fans of. In fact, Sean hates it so much he's been known to hide it while Abe is getting his pjs on, just to avoid having to read it.

Why? Well, for one, it's relatively long. Not a fault per se, but when you're trying to get an overtired kid to bed, short and sweet (a la Hairy Maclary) wins the day.

It's also got more than the odd dash of questionable grammar, which I really, really struggle to overlook. I get that grammar isn't everyone's strong point. Mostly, I don't mind if you get it wrong to be honest either. Until you get it wrong as a paid author. That just seems pretty careless and a bit bloody rude. Seriously, how you have a book actually published and it's still wrong in several places? Presumably someone in the industry with a job that required them to be, if not a grammar expert, at least competent, read the book prior to printing? Did they just not care enough to fix it?

I find myself wondering how many other issues there were with the book initially...considering if perhaps the editors decided to let the three or four little slips slide through because it was easier than suggesting more rewrites that didn't improve things anyway. In short, I cannot focus on the book at all when I have to read it. Still, at three, with his own questionable grammar, it doesn't worry my son and I guess he's the target audience, not me.

A good job, as along with the grammar problems, the plot is pretty disjointed too which also bothers me. Some events are a bit laboured over. Others sections just seem to stop without resolution. Again this makes it pretty hard to concentrate on reading it to Abe, because I also find myself considering what extra bits and pieces I'd have added or changed to make it read a little more fluidly. I'm not saying I'd be able to do a better job, but I'd wager I give the whole book a whole lot more consideration than Walliams did in the first place.

The central premise is a good one - a young boy adopts an elephant at the zoo who comes, unexpectedly, to live with him. The art work by Tony Ross is fabulous. But will I be buying 'The First Hippo on the Moon' by him that is advertised in the back and Abe keeps requesting? Probably not while there are other books out there like 'The Storm Whale in Winter' and 'Grandad's Island' by Benji Davis that do more than just have a good idea. They execute it with style (and you know, correctly) too...