Book Tour: You Can’t Take an Elephant on Holiday [AD]

It’s been a while since we’ve shared any book reviews here on the blog, but today we are very pleased to be part of the book tour for the new picture book You Can’t Take an Elephant on Holiday, by dream team Patricia Cleveland-Peck and David Tazzyman, which was published yesterday.

You Can’t Take an Elephant on Holiday is the latest edition to the best-selling Elephant series, which also includes You Can’t Take an Elephant on the Bus, You Can’t Let an Elephant Drive a Digger, and You Can’t Call an Elephant in an Emergency. With over 250,000 copies sold, the Elephant books are firm favourites with children who love the simple humour and engaging rhymes, including my own children.  We were already familiar with some of the other books, so were super excited to read You Can’t Take an Elephant on Holiday.

Like the other books in the series, You Can’t Take an Elephant on Holiday features a fun assortment of crazy creatures that get themselves into all kinds of sticky situations and would make the WORST holiday companions! You may recognise many of the scenes from your own holiday – an ice cream van, sandcastle on the beach, mini golf, candy floss, and paddling pools…but with a twist. From an ice cream stealing elephant (of course) and a clumsy ostrich who gets entangled in a deck chair, to a rampaging rhino, some toe nibbling piranhas, and lots more – you’ll be wishing you had just stayed at home!

We had fun reading this book together, and then my six year old tried reading it on his own and sounding out the rhymes. He was super proud of himself. We also really enjoyed the colourful illustrations, which of lots of details to spot. My son’s favourite rhyme was the meerkats, and his favourite illustration was the ostrich. Look carefully at the newspaper the man next to the ostrich is reading!

For an extra little treat, here is children’s author Abi Elphinstone sharing a reading of You Can’t Take an Elephant on Holiday:

You Can’t Take an Elephant on Holiday is a welcome addition to our picture book collection, that made my six year old laugh out loud, which is always a good sign. I realised we have lots of seasonal books for Autumn, Winter, Christmas, Halloween and Easter, but not so many for Summer, so this book is going to take pride of place on our Summer bookshelf. It is available to buy or order from most book stores.

Disclosure: We were gifted a free copy of You Can’t Take an Elephant on Holiday in return for an honest review. All opinions are out own. Many thanks to Bloomsbury for inviting us to be part of this book tour.