How Elegant the Elephant:
Poems About Animals and Insects
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers • March 2025 • 88 pages • ISBN: 978-0-31-641712-9
An accomplished children’s book writer and poet for over 60 years, Hoberman first worked with illustrator Frazee on the picture book The Seven Silly Eaters. For the current verse collection, Hoberman, who died in 2023, chose her favorites among her animal-themed poems that were originally published in books that are now out of print, in addition to writing eight new poems specifically for this volume.
The book’s gracious introduction includes reflections on her approach to writing poetry as well as advice to children on how to make a beloved poem your own, so that “you will have it for the rest of your life.”
Frazee’s lively illustrations, created with pencil and watercolors, capture the tone of the verse and amplify its humor for young children.
Horse
A horse that whinnies all the time
Will very soon be hoarse;
And though he’d like to neigh all day,
A hoarse horse can’t, of course.”
