An Elephant Named
Oliver
Written by Lindsay Miller
Illustrated by Abbie Hausman
This book was produced in the fall of 2014 at St. Norbert College, in De Pere, Wisconsin. It was a collaboration between design and teacher education students. It is typeset in Candara and Elephant Hiccups. All illustrations were hand drawn in pen, scanned, and digitally colored by Abbie Hausman. The book was then digitally printed by the college print center.
An Elephant Named
Oliver
Written by Lindsay Miller
Illustrated by Abbie Hausman
Hello, and welcome to my house! My name is Hazel, I’m six years old and I live at 123 Oak Street in a town called Westwood. Come inside! You can meet my family!
Hazel adored her cozy home where she lived with her loving Mom and Dad, her dear Nana, and her pet cat, Milo, who spent most of his time napping in the sunshine entering through the windows.
Hazel loved everything about her life and couldn’t wait for the summer to end so that she could begin the second grade. Although she was excited and ready for school to start, she was still a bit nervous.
One day, about a month before school started, Hazel went out to the backyard to jump on her trampoline. Hazel could not believe her eyes when she saw what was already jumping and frolicking about on the trampoline. It was a‌
BABY ELEPHANT?! “How could that be?” Hazel wondered. Hazel’s astonishment quickly passed and she raced to join the baby elephant on the trampoline. Hazel and the baby elephant, given the name Oliver, became inseparable from that day forward.
Hazel figured that keeping an elephant for a pet would be as easy as her cat Milo. She would make sure Oliver was fed every day, that he had some water in his bucket, and that he was safe and warm in the garage every night.
Hazel couldn’t tell her parents about Oliver, though. She knew that if she did, her parents would make her take Oliver back to the zoo. Hazel didn’t trust the zoo with the care of her best friend. Oliver was very special to Hazel and she didn’t want him to be taken from her.
Hazel made sure to sneak Oliver in every night just after her parents went to bed. She prepared the blankets on the floor, tucked Oliver in, and gave his trunk a kiss goodnight. Hazel jumped up out of bed bright and early before her parents and Nana to put Oliver outside where she knew no one would see him.
Before she knew it, the first day of school came. Hazel wasn’t as nervous about attending the second grade as she was about Oliver being alone the whole day while she was gone. What would Oliver do all day? Would Oliver get lonely? What if he runs out of water? Questions sped through her mind over and over. Not to mention that Oliver seemed to get bigger and bigger every day.
A few weeks went by. Hazel was beginning to settle into her new class and she adored her new teacher Mrs. Hill. Everything seemed to be going well, but Hazel was even more concerned about how quickly Oliver was outgrowing his old space in the garage. Hazel wasn’t sure where to put Oliver anymore because she was still hiding him from Mom, Dad, and Nana. Milo had accidentally come into the garage one day. The second he saw Oliver, he darted the other way back into the house.
One night, while everyone was asleep, there was a loud CRASH in the garage. Hazel didn’t hear a sound. That meant, unfortunately, that her Dad went into the garage to see what all the noise was. He brought his baseball bat along with him to the garage in case it was a burglar. What he found when he entered the garage was beyond his imagination. It was an‌
ELEPHANT?!
Oliver tried to make himself as small as possible in the garage that seemed to be a tightly packed box with him inside. Dad abruptly dropped the baseball bat to the ground, causing another loud CRASH! Mom and Nana came running to the garage to make sure dad was safe. Their mouths dropped open at the sight they saw in their garage at 123 Oak Street in a town called Westwood.
Epilogue: The county zoo picked up Oliver early the next morning. Hazel couldn’t help but cry because she knew her best friend was leaving. Mom, Dad, and Nana all reassured Hazel that it wouldn’t be the last time she saw Oliver because the county zoo was only a few minutes down the road and he could always have visitors. Hazel cheered up at the thought and couldn’t wait to visit Oliver at his new home in the county zoo.