"Once a young boy met a young elephant," writes Brenner (The Boy Who Loved to Draw: Benjamin West). "They told each other many things. And everything they said was true." As debut illustrator Gutierrez envisions it, this meeting of minds takes place in a beguilingly fanciful elephant park (mapped out in the endpapers), where it's perfectly natural for a pachyderm and preschooler not only to wander about together, but also to share a rowboat ride (both sensibly don lifejackets). Their roaming covers a lot of intellectual territory as well, as they discuss teeth, burping, playing and coping with fear ("When I'm afraid I hold a grown-up's hand," says the boy. "When I'm afraid, I hold a grown-up's tail," responds the elephant). As the two trade facts about their gestation and birth weight, Gutierrez shows the boy gleefully stuffing his shirt with leaves to demonstrate a pregnant woman's physique. The artist executes her deceptively straightforward gouache compositions as nimbly as she conceives them. Animal and human characterizations exude a sweet-natured, direct expressiveness—a perfect match for Brenner's plainspoken text—while her framing and pacing are often cinematic. Free of irony and wisecracking, story and pictures work together for a refreshing look at how animals and people are both alike and different. Ages 3-7. (June)
