Who Wieghs 4 Tons and Leads a Herd of the Largest Land Mammals?

She Leads: The Elephant Matriarch

9/3/2021

Picture book, 32 pages. Lovely book with dual stories lines describing the elephant matriarch's role in the herd. Published in 2020 by Familius.

Book Recap

Two-for-one! This book is both a lovely picture book, as well as an information book for children who want to know more about elephants. Admittedly, my first reading of this book seemed a bit disjointed until I realized the beauty of the gem in my hands!

If I were to read this book to my Little Guy or Noodle, I would read the story-line first followed by a re-reading of the informational line while giving the little ones to explore drawing the naturalistic illustrations during both readings. This is truly a wonderful book!

Learning Ideas

Family Read Aloud Time
"She is Queen." With such an opening line, this book instantly becomes a wonderful bedtime read! The illustrations and the "picture-book" story lets little ones know what a baby elephant needs to know to become the herd's matriarch in time.

Learning at Home
Children love to learn about elephants -- this book is filled with perfect-sized tidbits about an elephant herd, elephant behavior and the skills the matriarch needs to lead the herd. If you want to put together a more robust unit on elephants, check out the National Geographic Elephant Facts site. You could also create a geography lesson with their Learning at Home Mapping Storybooks lesson!

Classroom Options
National Geographic also offers incredibly resources for the classrooms! Take a look at theirResource Library: Elephants.

June Smalls

Smalls' web site will tickle your funny bone:

"June has swam with sharks, fed tigers, bears, giraffes, sting rays and sea turtles, met an elephant, rode a camel, came face to face with a wild skunk, and was bitten by an emu...twice."

Yumi Shimokawara

Shimokawara is an illustrator, picture book writer, and animal lover living in Japan. She studied Japanese literature and painting in college.

There is a companion book by Smalls and Shimokawara about gorillas - He Leads.