cover image Coming of Age with Elephants: A Memoir

Coming of Age with Elephants: A Memoir

Joyce Poole. Hyperion Books, $24.45 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-7868-6095-1

Poole spent much of her childhood in Africa and found it a place of enchantment. As a young woman, she returned to Kenya's Ambosili National Park to study elephants with Cynthia Moss. Poole gives an engrossing account of her work and her turbulent personal life. She coped with danger from both elephants and poachers, loneliness, sexism, rape by a gang of men and a devastating love affair. Increasingly impressed with elephants' intelligence, Poole embarked on a study of their vocalization in 1985. Later she was active in the fight for a ban on ivory. She became the director of elephant conservation and management for the Kenya Wildlife Service, training young scientists and making tough decisions on killing elephants. Readers who have followed the story of the African elephant will find Poole's tale especially appealing. Photos not seen by PW. (Mar.)