The Elephant Scientist

By: Caitlin O'Connell & Donna M. Jackson
Photographs by: Caitlin O'Connell & Timothy Rodwell

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children  Copyright Date:  2011 ISBN: 978-0-547-05344-8

Genre: Informational   Format: Non Fiction

Major Awards Received:

Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Excellence in Children's Literature, 2012 Honor Book
Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal, 2012 Honor Book United States 

Summary: This book is about how Caitlin O'Connell and her husband Timothy Rodwell were offered a 3 year job studying elephant movements in Namibia.  Caitlin was always a pursuer of animals and enjoyed the chance to bring her knowledge of animal behavior to Africa.  The journey turned out to be full of information about elephants and will prove to be just another step in finding out more information about the world's largest land mammal. 

Personal response: I truly enjoyed reading this story because elephants are my favorite animal.  I was fascinated to find out that the heel of their feet are made of dense fat that they use to feel vibrations from miles away.  Using Donna, an elephant in the Oakland Zoo, scientists were able to train her to respond with her trunk when she felt a seismic vibration.  When I read this I was amazed that they would be able to communicate with an elephant and I related this to myself trying to teach an English language learner trying to communicate with me.  Just because we do not speak the same language does not mean that we can not communicate!  

Classroom connections: Before reading this book, I would ask students what they know about elephants and put his information on the white board.  After reading this book, I would ask the students again what they know about elephants and put the new information on the white board for the students to see that by reading a book, they are learning so much more about a topic.  I would start reading this book by going to http://www.teachingbooks.net/book_reading.cgi?id=7250&a=1
, where I would have the students listen to the beginning of the book read to them while I hold the book up for the students to see.  This recording goes until page 3 so after that I would continue to read the rest of the book to them.  This would give students and opportunity to hear someone else read to them and to let them know that they have the option to hear samples of books before they read them.