Once Upon An Elephant
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
You can visit the website below for a short preview of what the story is about. It is a lot of fun and done fully in rhyme...I tested it on many children from 3-8 years of age and they loved it.
Here's some of the text from the book.
ONCE UPON AN ELEPHANT
by George CIpolletti
Once upon a,.........................
Well, you know how it goes,
There once was a knight with curled up toes.
This young fellow was brave, but not very light.
He rode a huge horse, an earth-shaking sight!
Gargle Mac Delpher was the name of this lad,
Who. fought everything hateful and bad.
Between battles, he lived in the kangdom of FADD,
Ten miles from SHIMM and flve miles from SHADD.
With Mac Delpher in mind, let our story begin
As our hero rode to the castle of SHIMM.
Now, SHIMM was ruled by a Count named Mc Gruff
Who hated nice thinqs, and all sorts of stuff.
Like flowers and beagles and peanuts and such.
In fact, now that I think of it, he didn't like much!
Except for.. . ...
A lovely young princess named Gertrude Mac Bower;
Held captive by Mc Gruff in a far off high tower
Where she wept at the thought of the dreadful hour
She must marry the Count witth the face grim and sour,
The castle of SHIMM had a dirty olde moat
Surraunding a wall, a great wall ot note!
In back of this wall was a grey prison tower,
That held the pretty princess, the Lady Gertrude Mac Bower.
It was the quest of Mac Delpher, that lovable cuss
To rescue the sweet princess, without too much fuss
And bring her back home to arms of her dad,
The wonderful kinq of the Kingdom of SHADD.
"l'm coming fair maiden", he said 'neath his breath,
"I'II foil the foul Count, I'll fight to the death.
I'll save you for sure, just you wait and see.
Then, free from that tyrant, you'll ride home with me.
Then,..Mac Delpher saw a terrible sight.
A great green dragon, just itching to fight.
It's teeth were sharp, and out of it's nose,
He snorted forth tire, to burn all his foes.
"Charge, faithful stead!" shouted our lovable hero.
Horse and rider approached the hour of zero.
The book is enhanced by wonderful illustrations by my granddaugher Suzanne. these illustrations bring my story into exciting life as you will see.
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
'Once Upon an Elephant' began as an idea in 1956. I played around with the story until I came up with an unlikely hero, a pretty princess, a scoundrel and an elephant. It is a story that is told in easy rhyming form that kids seem to love. It is a story about an unlikely hero who is not accepted in the regular circle of knights because he is a little too chubby. It is filled with 32 pages of wonderful graphics by Suzanne that certainly add to the book's basc concept. It's the same concept that I used in my days as a free lance cartoonist. I would make up scenarios and then would come up with the finished cartoon. The difference, this time, was that I was thinking of a story line for my children since they loved the stories that I made up for them at bedtime. The story became side tracked as I began working as a teacher in the Wayne NJ schools system. In 1957, I found the story in my files and decided to re-write the story in rhyme. I worked it out and put it out of my mind until I drew up the complete story in book form for my daughter Janet in 1970. She loved the it and, afterwards, was again put aside until recently .. ... .My son Robert found the old booklet and I put it on the computer, cleaned up the drawings and made up books for each of my two young grand children and two great grandchildren as Christmas gifts. I didn't give it much thought until I saw that they all liked the story and I was encouraged to try for publication. That's when my grand daughter Suzanne came to my rescue and said she would love to collaborate with me on the book and illustrate the story. How could I refuse? Suzanne is an accomplished artist with a BFA degree and works as an animator for United Space Alliance doing animations for the Kennedy Space Center. After a few meetings, we agreed on the format and put the story together in a style that pleased us both and this is what turned out. We hope that everyone enjoys the story as much as we do.
About the Author
Author George Cipolletti with grand daughter Suzanne Cipolletti.
George first thought of this story in 1956 while he was a teacher in the Wayne N.J school system and recently decided to publish on the advice of his grand children.
George graduated from Purdue U. in 1950 with BS in IE and an MA in Philosophy from Seton Hall U in 1961. Before that he served three years in the US Army's 66th Infantry Division and with the 42nd Infantry Division doing occupation duty in Austria.
Suzanne graduated from University of Central Florida with a BA in Fine Arts. United Space Alliance employs her at Kennedy Space Center as a computer animator for the space program.
She also is a freelance artist, lending her creative talents to clients requesting illustrations, animation, web sites, product design, and much more.
George tried many things after graduating from Purdue. First, he was employed as an engineer, then as a freelance cartoonist, then his own business, then switched gears and became an educator for over 36 years.
He and his wife Ruth are now retired and have been blessed with four wonderful children, 16 grand children and two great grand children with the family growing.