Can you imagine a world without elephants? The people of the world must find a way to stop the slaughter of these majestic animals. One elephant is killed by poachers every 15 minutes – all because of the greed for ivory trinkets and government inaction to stop the ivory trade. If we do not move quickly to protect elephants, our children will have no exposure to them; they will be extinct in the wild by the time they reach middle age.

These dark and sad thoughts crossed our minds as we looked at the lovely cover of this picture book of a mother elephant gently and lovingly grooming her child. Raju and his mother set out on a slow walk to a sacred place for her. Along the way, they meet some scary creatures including crocodiles, a giant snake, and a tiger. As his mother fends off these animals and protects her son, he keeps asking "When can we go home again?" "Soon," she replies, but not until she has shown him an expansive view of their territory.

Timothy Knapman's touching story captures the love between these two animals and the land. The illustrations by Patrick Benson are perfectly attuned to the setting and the mood of adventure.