cover image Papa Tembo

Papa Tembo

Eric Campbell. Harcourt Children's Books, $16 (288pp) ISBN 978-0-15-201727-9

Campbell (The Shark Callers; The Place of Lions) sets this slow-going safari adventure on the African plains, pitting human intelligence against the primordial wisdom of an ancient elephant. The memory of the massacre of Papa Tembo's herd nearly 50 years ago haunts ""the father of elephants,"" as well as 70-year-old Laurens van der Wel, the poacher whom Papa Tembo nearly trampled during his narrow escape. Now reduced to a crippled man whose ""spirit was as hideously twisted as his leg,"" Laurens is a cardboard version of Melville's legendary sea captain; while Laurens, like Ahab, seeks revenge against the source of his physical pain and mental anguish, he lacks the awe for his enemy that gives the whale-obsessed villain his dimension. In charting the course of Lauren's hunt for the elusive elephant, Campbell plants obstacles in his path, namely the Blake family, researchers trailing Papa Tembo's new herd; and Hyram T. Johnson, an American concerned with protecting endangered species. Readers may glean some interesting details about animal behavior and African folklore, but it's a long wait to the final showdown between man and beast. Not surprisingly, the elephants are more humane than the humans. Ages 10-up. (Sept.)