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Catherine Warrington |
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My intention in creating The Story of the Ethical Elephants was to capture in story the ethics of beautiful living. I wanted children reading the book to realise that they themselves are treasure stores of wisdom and beauty. To know that they have an important role to play and that their dreams have a unique and powerful place in this wonderful world of ours. I also wanted the story to celebrate our differences and explore the idea that working together holds the key to being who we truly are and living to our full potential. Alone we are irreplaceable, together we are unstoppable. My experience in writing The Story of the Ethical Elephants has reflected this principle, as together we have produced something I could never have conceived of alone. I have loved working together with my big cousin David and the genius that is Hogarth, as they nurtured my ideas into life and enhanced them with their own. When David had finished writing, I was convinced that Afindica really might exist, and by the time Hogarth had painted everything into life, I was just about ready to pack up and move there! Along the way I seem to have fallen in love…..Eight times.
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David Parkinson |
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I’ve been writing film books and children’s stories for over 20 years. It was a real pleasure to team up with Conch Press for The Story of the Ethical Elephants, which seeks to raise awareness of both the reader’s own identity and some of the pressing issues currently facing our world. Catherine had already created the elephant characters and outlined their journey by the time I came on board. My job was to come up with a friendly guide who could combine facts about the planet with cheeky humour. I love the way in which Hogarth has brought Mtona the parrot to life and, hopefully, you will love him, too. Mtona means ‘you will all see, hear and believe’ in Swahili and I trust that readers everywhere will find a message of their own to cherish in the Ethical Elephants.
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Hogarth Brown |
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Working on this project has been a great experience, and as soon as I was given the brief of the story I knew that I not only wanted to do it, but had to do it, and it has been a privilege to be involved. The story of the elephants is truly a universal one, which I believe any child or adult could relate to at any level. The elephant’s message of pooling talents and working together as a whole, is only going to become more relevant, particularly in this time, and for many, many years beyond. I’d like to thank every one involved with the project for allowing me total creative freedom, and to interpret and respond to the text in the way most natural for me. Each character has such a clear personality and purpose, that I felt they were clearly telling me how they should be realised in paint, and I hope the reader feels this too. If so then I have done my job well, and I hope all readers will enjoy all the characters they have met, as much as I have.
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Linda Rauch |
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Through my involvement with the Lessons from the Ethical Elephants I was gifted with the opportunity to apply my passion of bringing depth and integrity to education. As a mum, I know the importance of teaching our children true lessons of life and weaving them into numbers and words, activities and lesson plans. As a homeopath, I also understand the importance of healing and how the flower essences can be used to encourage children and adults to flourish and bloom through the transformative power inherent in them, which the book so beautifully illustrates. Each elephant gives us clues of how to achieve guiding our little ones into a richer future. So thank you to all have been involved in this project, and a special thank you to all the teachers who nurture our children and will be carrying our message on, into their own classrooms.
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