Elephants Cry Too

In the year 2000, when this book was first published, I wanted to create a book which could be given to a child who was starting school at the age of 5 years and which could be read by them progressively until the age of 13 years when they either moved up to ‘Middle or High School.’ I also wanted to mark their memory of the New Millennium with their own special book. Because the reading age between all children of between 5 years of age and 13 is so vast, this project naturally involved the writing of a number of stories that catered for children of different chronological ages and reading abilities. The outcome of this idea was the publication of the book ‘Bes’; which contains four interdependent stories that links in theme. The four stories concern four types of creatures, a bear (for 5-7 year old readers), an elephant (for 7-9 year old readers), a sheep (for 9-11 year old readers), and a New Millennium spiritual creature called ‘Bes’, who was part bear, part elephant and part sheep in both appearance and disposition( for 9-13 year old reader). ‘Elephants Cry Too,’ has been written for the 7-9 year old reader. It deals with multiple themes that embrace nature, mankind, the environment and spirituality. The story is told through the eyes of a small boy in India. The orphan boy never grows to normal height and is constantly being bullied by other village children. The boy’s only friends in the world are the animals of the forest. One day when his life is at the lowest of ebbs, the boy meets a holy man in the forest who tells him a story about the first herd of elephants. The old man’s story changes the boy’s life thereafter. The two most prominent story themes of ‘Elephant’s Cry Too’ deals with the ‘purpose of existence’ and the consequences that ‘every change brings with it a cost.’