Elephant Island

A shipwrecked elephant makes his tiny island a home for the many friends who come to the rescue, in the new picture book from New York Times Illustrated Book Award winning author.

Selected for The New York Times Best Children's Books 2022

Caught in a storm, Arnold the elephant washes up on a tiny island. Along comes Mouse in a little dinghy and Arnold steps aboard... uh-oh! They use the wreckage to make the island bigger. And here’s Dog—can this boat take Arnold's weight? Uh-oh!

None of the animals can save the shipwrecked elephant but each broken vessel provides new materials for another intricate construction. Wheels and pulleys create a Ferris wheel, an elevator, a waffle maker. All the animals work as a team to build increasingly intricate constructions that turn the desert island into a fun park city. Soon there is a whole community and enough space for everyone!

As with all Leo Timmers picture books, Elephant Island has many layers of discovery. Tapping into the childhood pleasure of contraptions, this cheerful picture book is full of complex and playful visual detail and humour that Leo Timmers’ readers love. Preschoolers who enjoy Meccano and Lego will find joy on every page with the creation of each new imaginative construction, packed with mechanical detail on bright double page spreads. Elephant Island is a runaway hit in Europe.

"Yet another triumphant experiment for the award-winning Timmers." — The New York Times

Picture Book finalist, Teach Early Years Awards 2022.

Other books by Leo Timmers:

Monkey On The Run

Where Is The Dragon?

Who’s Driving?

Gus’s Garage

Franky

Bang!