Out of Africa

The Elephant Scientist, by Caitlin O'Connell and Donna M. Jackson, is the story of American Scientist Caitlin O'Connell's study of African Elephants in the desert of Etosha National Park in Nambia (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2011). Camouflaged and holding binoculars to her eyes, Caitlin and her team study African Elephants in their natural habitat.Through her compelling photographs and research, we catch a glimpse of one of nature's largest, most complex, and most intelligent mammals. Along with Caitlin, we discover that elephants can communicate through vibrations in the ground....helping them to sense danger and react accordingly. This fascinating nonfiction piece is one you can't put down! It was recently awarded  as a 2012 Robert F. Sibert Honor Book .

 Never Forgotten, by Patricia C. McKissak with artwork by Leo and Diane Dillon, is a 2012 Coretta Scott King Author Honor book. Set in West Africa, this lyrical story-in-verse is about a young black boy who is kidnapped and sold into slavery. Told through his father's grief, Mali raises his child himself when the infant’s mother dies in childbirth. Dinga enlists the Mother Elements of Earth, Fire, Water and Wind to help raise Musafa. One day, Dinga sends Musafa into the brush to collect wood. It is here that he is captured by “men with the blue of the sky in their eyes”.Full-page  paintings in acrylic and watercolor use strong black lines, almost like woodcut engravings, to tell the story visually. The boy, later named Moses, becomes a gifted apprentice blacksmith in Charleston, S.C.,  and is eventually freed by his blacksmith owner. (Schwartz & Wade 2011).