Life Elephant

Olive’s father has a sadness so big that she imagines it as an enormous elephant following him around. Every day Olive sees the elephant. And every day, she wishes it would go. With the help of her cheery grandad and best friend, Arthur, Olive sets out to chase the elephant away.

We Bought a Zoo meets Jurassic Park in a gripping story featuring the evergreen appeal of human-animal friendships and set in an elephant sanctuary, about a 13-year-old girl, a cast of elephants, and a surprising new arrival - a woolly mammoth. Sam was born and raised in an elephant sanctuary. When a beloved elephant dies giving birth, Sam develops a connection with baby Woolly - who isn't actually an elephant but was cloned from woolly mammoth DNA.

Elephants are as unique as people. They can be clever and curious or headstrong and impulsive, shy or sociable. Learn to know them as individuals as well as a species in this evocative account of years spent studying elephant behaviour in the wild. Watching a family out for a swim on a hot day, Dr Hannah Mumby notes grandmothers, mothers, sisters and children exchanging noisy greetings, a consistent stream of close-range vocalisations, intermittent touching, co-operative herding of babies and frequent stopping for snacks. A close and interconnected family.

Navsari, India. Penniless and trapped in a loveless marriage, Nirmala spends her days anxiously caring for her sick young son, Varun. Looming over Nirmala’s impoverished home is an imposing mansion built by her grandfather, and from its balcony her cruel aunt scorns them, refusing to help in any way. But when a mysterious letter addressed to her long-dead father arrives from Zimbabwe, it opens a door to a past Nirmala never knew existed and a future she never imagined possible.

An elephant seal glides through the sea. Gulp! It catches a small fish. Listen to learn all about these blubbery mammals.

When Grief first arrives, it is an elephant—so big that there is hardly room for anything else. But over time, Grief becomes smaller and smaller—first a deer, a fox, then a mouse, and finally a flickering firefly in the darkness leading us down a path of loving remembrance.

Sherry Chin Heijkoop's different kind of memoir, Elephant, is an inspirational and entertaining read. Elephant unfolds her life growing up in extreme poverty in a dirt shack in Malaysia after her dad womanized his way out of her family when she was two. Raised by a single mom with eight siblings - a family that consistently degraded Sherry for not having the physical traits of a "Chinese beauty" and in turn labeling her with the nickname "Elephant".

Beginning with his interactions with Dr Salim Ali, the legendary ornithologist - who was also his grand-uncle - wildlife biologist Rauf Ali takes the listener on a journey through India’s natural history and the beginning of ecological studies in India. Rauf was one of the first Indians to complete a PhD in wildlife biology - he researched the social behaviour of bonnet macaques in the forests of Mundanthurai region in Tamil Nadu. In the late 1980s, he was instrumental in setting up one of India’s first master's programmes in ecology.

The story begins from nine-year-old Nate's point of view, etching the details of an unbalanced mind struggling to make sense of rampant thought patterns and heightened paranoia. Enter Ashley, Nate's mother and a hardworking advertising executive concerned that she's not giving her family enough of her time - especially now that she senses something might be wrong with her son. As the story moves deftly back and forth between the two perspectives, the narrative converges to reveal one family's journey of discovery as they strive to find balance in their lives.

A kind but lonely elephant seeks friendship among the other animals of the forest, yet one by one, they reject him. One day, a lion enters the forest, and all the other animals flee in terror. The elephant alone can protect the smaller animals, but why bother when they were all so cruel to him?