27. "But No Elephants" by Jerry Smath

I drove to Denver this afternoon to see friends, one of whom, Lisa, gave me a children's book to read so I wouldn't miss my book-per-day goal. (She also sent several grownup novels home with me to round out my reading list.) I'd never heard of But No Elephantsby Jerry Smath before, but it turned out to be a fun read with cute illustrations.

Grandma Tildy lives alone, and she's willing to take almost any pet from the pet man--"but no elephants!" However, when the pet man departs from town before winter, he leaves his last pet, an elephant, right outside Grandma Tildy's house. And then the snow starts to fall, and she can hear the elephant crying...which is sad. But because this is a children's book, it has a whimsical and very happy resolution. And even we adults need whimsical and very happy resolutions at times. At least this adult does.

(I should confess here that I have a lifelong fondness for picture books involving elephants, dating back to a Little Golden Book called Elephant on Wheels, which I made my father reread so many times that he can still recite most of it from memory.)