Through the Elephant’s Door

Émile is a curious elephant who, on a rainy day, was invited to the museum with his boy. Together, they take in the beautiful paintings hung on the wall, interesting sculptures, and highly breakable vases. At every turn though, their pleasant trip to the museum is marred by the suspicious and overbearing security guard who believes that Émile’s large windmill ears will surely knock something off its display hook or that Émile’s mountainous behind will bump into all of the breakables! After each insult, Émile’s boy wants to stand up for his friend, defend him, let the guard know that he was wrong about Émile, but he is never able to find his voice.

Cormier’s illustrations beautifully depict the art one would find at a world-renowned museum. The formatting of the text on each page, with some font larger or in bold, really emphasis sections of the story to help with the flow. One page of text opposite an illustration of a totem pole is especially interesting as the text is also centered and narrowed to mirror the totem pole.

Through the Elephant’s Door, originally written in French, is a very humorous, lighthearted story about standing up to bullying and feeling confident in yourself, no matter what others say. The fast paced plot, character development, and hilarious twists will keep readers interested until the end. The action words and the anticipation created in each page contribute to making this an excellent read-aloud.