SAGGY BAGGY ELEPHANT book review

BY K. & B. JACKSON * ILLUSTRATED BY GUSTAF TENGGREN

Did you know that studies suggest reading to your child at an early age helps them understand language sooner, and improves your infant’s ability to concentrate and absorb information, thus improving their intelligence? Sure maybe they only listen to it for 30 seconds at a whack and your left reading Tawny Scrawny lion to deaf ears, but we at Pater’s Potpourri believe the benefits far out weigh the abject humiliation you feel from reading to no one.
Having said that, we are proud to bring you Pater’s Potpourri’s first book review, featuring one of the many great books in the LITTLE GOLDEN BOOKS series: The Saggy Baggy Elephant.
I love LITTLE GOLDEN BOOKS, I must have had a hundred of these things when I was a kid, and I always seemed to gravitate to the old-school ones from the 40’s and 50’s. Especially the ones with the simple, rich and colorful illustrations by Gustaf Tenggren (a man who cut his teeth at Disney with films like Pinocchio, Snow White, Fantasia and Bambi), and the Saggy Baggy Elephant is no exception.
This is a good book to read to children because it’s socially conscious and teaches them not to feel bad about the way they look. The story will especially hit home if your kid is a little fat ass like the Saggy Baggy Elephant. It also teaches children not to judge others too harshly, which is a valuable lesson for all children to learn, because as J.M. Barrie taught us in Peter Pan; children are cruel (hey, I may be a dick, but even I realize there is a children’s world and an adult’s world, and as such is our duty as adults to raise kind and responsible human beings)!
But what really makes me go gay for this book is the illustrations. I am a lover of art (from classical to low-brow) at heart. And though these paintings may appear simplistic to some, they are still capable of invoking primal emotions felt by all. Even without the text one could follow the images and walk away with a perfect understanding of the book. And for this reason alone this book receives 5 beers.