School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-Ellie, a reticent young elephant with endearingly huge eyes, resides in a run-down zoo. When Walt the zookeeper announces that the zoo must close for good, the animals decide that sprucing up the place might save it. Everyone pitches in 2according to their talents-Gerard the gorilla clears away rocks, Lucy the giraffe trims trees-but Ellie feels useless and left out. Serendipitously, she happens to find some paint and a brush left behind by Walt, and discovers that she's a splendid artist. Soon, she decorates the entire zoo and gains renown as the painting elephant, attracting crowds and saving her home. Wu's dynamic watercolor illustrations enliven the story, their retro/classic feel possessing a distinctive animation quality that is unsurprising, given Wu's background as a Pixar animator. The effective use of color emphasizes Ellie's transformation, subdued greens and grays becoming a veritable chromatic explosion, "before" and "after" looks of the zoo cleverly highlighted in the endpapers. VERDICT A sweet, if slightly bland, inspirational story suggesting that one can come across a hidden talent unexpectedly.-Yelena Alekseyeva-Popova, formerly at Chappaqua Library, NY © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Wu, an animator who has worked on many Pixar hits, makes his literary debut with a story ever-so-gently ripped from the headlines: the artwork-producing elephant. The eponymous heroine is desperate to help her compatriots save their zoo from closing, but she's too small to make a dent in the needed cleanup and repair work. On a whim, Ellie picks up a paintbrush with her trunk and within a few pages, she is a not just a sought-after portraitist, but also a performance artist: "Soon, people from around the world came to see Ellie, the remarkable painting elephant." Wu is a literal writer, but his visual storytelling, rendered in sweet, throwback-style watercolors, shows creativity and poise. Ellie, who looks like she's a branch of Dumbo's family tree, leads a cast of equally endearing animal characters, and every vignette is expertly framed for a chuckle, an "Awww," or both: when Ellie paints a portrait of Lucy the giraffe, her subject's head extends beyond the top edge of the page. Ages 3-5. Agent: Emily van Beek, Folio Literary Management. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
