LOST LITTLE ELEPHANT

An invitation from a cousin in Delhi prompts a South African elephant's trip around the world. Eighteen destinations later, readers may feel nearly as exhausted as if they had made the trip themselves. Little Elephant's first stop is Cape Town, where a bustling city scene and its description bog down in extraneous informational sidebars. Whether Cape Town, Cairo ("After Little Elephant had rested awhile, drunk the Nile dry... and eaten most of the valley's date trees... he decided to keep walking") or Paris, each stop receives a similar whirlwind tour, with too much to see, read and absorb. While in Barcelona, for instance, readers learn about the Sagrada Familia Cathedral, "designed by a famous Spanish architect named Antoni Gaudi. They [sic] started building it in 1882, and it still isn't finished!" Also name-dropped: paella (neither explained nor adequately depicted), the La Ramblas walkway and more. With such cursory treatment, these numerous stops may be indistinguishable and repetitive to untraveled youngsters. Although ill-suited to an already busy story, British artist Rayner's striking style combines what appear to be cut paper, pen, paint and chalk. Her palette vibrates with hot pinks, oranges and purples, striated into an intriguingly distressed yet energetic look. If only there were (literally) less ground for her to cover. Ages 4-7. (June)