Published: 16th May 2016
Publisher: Random House Australia
Illustrator: Laura Wood
Pages: 32
Format: Paperback Picture Book
★ ★ ★ ★ – 4 Stars
Elly is Eve’s toy elephant, but he’s also her best friend. When Elly goes missing, Eve is the one who is lost.
What drew me to this book were the illustrations. I loved the cover by Laura Wood, and as I kept turning pages I loved them and the story even more. Elly the elephant comes alive in Eve’s mind, he has expressions, he mimics Eve’s movements, and Wood makes the whole thing incredibly adorable. The pictures are relatively basic but reflect the words on the page, and depending what they’re depicting have varying degrees of detail.
The blurb tells us that when Elly goes missing, it is Eve who is lost. I loved that when Elly is gone Eve’s dad doesn’t try to make her feel better per se, he understands but offers up another one of her toys as “someone who [also] needs her” and tries to make her love her other toys for the time being until Elly comes back.
It’s a sweet story about how to cope when a child loses a favourite toy. Dad has a good solution and it is one that could be easily adopted if need be because lost toys are not always recovered. Dumbleton has been creative and clever in his writing, it suits what a parent might do and say to their child who is upset over the loss of a toy but it does also come with its own troubles as mum and dad discover.
There are moments for the parents to enjoy as they read and the kids will love seeing Eve’s love for her toy and get to think about what they would do if they lost one of their favourite toys.
You can purchase Eve and Elly via the following
Lost in a Good Book 