If I were an elephant, I could enjoy a mud spa: “Completely divine, muddy chocolate sublime”. Tracy Vaughn Zimmer’s poems about elephants are varied, informed and 
gorgeously presented in Cousins of Clouds. Each page has text boxes with information about elephants. For example, on the poem page about a trainer who had to give his elephant bitter medicine, the sidebar explains about the long memories of elephants and how one elephant retaliated by trumpeting often in his trainer’s ear after being tricked into swallowing unsavoury medicine.
Illustrated by Megan Halsey and Sean Addy, this book is one to cherish. Respond with activities about elephants and poetry or do some art.
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