An Elephant is Not a Cat

by Alvin Tresselt, Tom Vroman (Illustrator)

Tresselt and Wheaton's story of an elephant in Holland is a Parents' Magazine Press "Good Reader" book and a delight to all who encounter it. With charming vintage illustrations by Tom Vroman.

Genres: Picture Books

48 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1962

About the author

Alvin Tresselt (1916-2000) was born in New Jersey. He was an editor for Humpty Dumpty magazine and an executive editor for Parent’s Magazine Press before becoming an instructor and the Dean of Faculty for the Institute of Children’s Literature in Connecticut. He wrote over thirty children’s books, selling over a million copies. Although White Snow, Bright Snow won the Caldecott Medal in 1948, his best-known book is a retelling of the Ukranian folk tale The Mitten. Tresselt was a pioneer in children’s writing, well known for his poetic prose style. He created the “mood” picture book, in which the setting and description for a story was even more important than the characters and plot.
Memoria Press First Grade Enrichment Guide

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

just reread this for the first time since the early 70's, i still love it!

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 3 out of 5]

What is it about cats and elephants? What is it about comparing one to the other? Or pretending that one is the other? Recent examples of this picture book phenomena are My Cat, the Silliest Cat in the World and When the Silliest Cat Was Small both by Gilles Bachelet.

http://pussreboots.com/blog/2019/comm...

[Brent Ecenbarger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice story, although the illustrations varied in terms of quality.

[Siskiyou-Suzy · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's set in Holland, and the illustrations are gorgeous: colorful and full of style. In it, a rich man owns a mill where he grinds corn meal and sells it. After panicking over mice who got caught eating a small amount of meal, his wise wife tells him to get a cat. Instead, he gets an elephant, who promptly eats almost all of their corn. As the man is despairing, his wife appears and simply reminds him what a hard worker he is, and how they will be successful once again. Won't spoil the ending for ya!