This image is the cover for the book Faithful Elephants

Faithful Elephants

This beautifully illustrated children’s book offers a sobering lesson about the horrors of war through the lens of a Japanese zoo during WWII.

At Tokyo’s famous Ueno Zoo, a zookeeper recounts the story of three performing elephants—John, Tonky, and Wanly—who became casualties of the Second World War. As bombs fell nightly on the city, the zoo was in danger of destruction. In the interest of public safety, instructions were given to kill the potentially dangerous animals. Still, the elephant’s keepers wept and prayed that the war would end so that their beloved elephants might be saved.

Originally published in Japan in 1951, this heartbreaking historical tale is now available in English with beautiful watercolor illustrations by Ted Lewin.

Yukio Tsuchiya, Tomoko Tsuchiya Dykes, Ted Lewin

Ted Lewin grew up in Buffalo, New York, with two brothers, one sister, two parents, a lion, an iguana, and a chimpanzee. He became interested in art as a young boy when he would draw his brothers' world of wrestling. Ted later worked as a professional wrestler to finance his studies at the Pratt Institute of Fine Arts, where he met his wife, Betsy Lewin, also a children's book writer and illustrator. He and his wife travel around the world to research the settings for their books. While working on SACRED RIVER, which he both wrote and illustrated, Ted joined thousands of Hindus on their pilgrimage to the banks of the Ganges River in Benares, India. Ted now lives and works in the brownstone he shares with his wife and their two cats in Brooklyn, New York. For more information visit www.tedlewin.com.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt