I am a sucker for a good tragic animal story, but this was a miss for me. The story felt very all over the place, and my daughter kept asking me things like "wait, how did an elephant not wake up when being taken across the world to a ship?" . It was just not a solid flowing story line. The art was very child-like, which normally I don't mind, but it didn't fit the serious tone of the book at all.

Review to come next week to blog/Goodreads.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

I spotted this book on Netgalley and was interested in it. I love stories about elephants, they are also one of my favourite animals, so I just knew I had to try this out.

A book about two elephant friends, Adia and Lotus who get separated one day and then at the end get reunited. We see how their friendship started and I was just awwwing and ooohing at the cuteness of it all. They were just the cutest! How they told each other about their dreams, their plans, how they had fun eating fruit and playing with water.

But the happy days aren't that long and they get separated. Which was a bit confusing as we mostly saw Lotus's experience and then only know that Adia is somewhere else when the birds tell the railway elephants to flee to the boats. For my feeling Adia never moved. :P

I do wonder how they ever found each other. Canada isn't as tiny as my country, so it isn't an easy trip, especially since we see seasons have passed since Lotus has come to the country. Or was that also Adia? The art definitely didn't help making the story more clear, so maybe I just mixed things up. Either way, I did like that they found each other again, and at a party even. It was quite cute to see them still remember the other despite many years having passed since then (which I also never felt, I just thought a short time had passed).

Sadly... the art... sorry not my cup of tea. Sometimes the elephants looked like elephants (like the cover) but at times they just didn't. :( And since it is such a big part of the book (this is a picture book) I am deducing some points from my rating.

All in all, there are points of improvement here. It was a cute idea, I like the two elephants. But with the story feeling weird time-wise and the art not always working out, it made things confusing.

I was looking for a story about elephants that included a journey to use in the classroom. Although it is a sweet story about two elephant friends, it touches on animal protection (poaching), involuntary relocation (illegal kidnapping) and animals used as beasts of burden. This story has some interesting points for discussion at home or in the classroom.

This is a lovely story about two shy baby elephants , Lotus and Adia, who live in Northern India and become best friends.They enjoy a wonderful childhood playing together, splashing and eating watermelon. They are separated, and sent to work in West Africa and Tanzania, and later sent to Canada to escape poachers. Many years later, after arriving in Canada, they encounter one another at a watermelon party.

This story has a lot of wonderful qualities, including vivid language and vocabulary, beautiful pictures, and information about other cultures, and animals, which kids love.
I recommend this book for children ages 4 + who love animals.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a very heartwarming story of the adventures and friendship of two elephants.I enjoyed it but it did not keep kids attention through whole book.

This is a children's book that I read to my twin boys. I have to say this book could not keep their attention. I think the story was just not much for children. I think the pictures where cute. I just wish the story was written more for children. I was kindly provided an e-copy of this book by the publisher (BooksGoSocial) or author (Zeni Shariff) via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review about how I feel about this book, and I want to send a big Thank you to them for that.

This book is a heartwarming and beautiful story kids are sure to love. It also teaches about history, geography, and the environment making it more than just a read-aloud for kids- it's a great book to grow with.
The illustrations are fantastic and compliment the story perfectly.
Many thanks to BooksGoSocial and NetGalley for the advance copy.

This is the story of two elephants and their friendship through distance and time.
It's a beautiful little story about how we can always find each other, the universe provides and keeps us.
My children enjoyed this story as elephants are our favourite animals, and we have a deep appreciation for their history so it was nice to learn a little through the story.