Twenty-one Elephants and Still Standing: A Story of P.T. Barnum and the Brooklyn Bridge by Prince, April Jones

Title: Twenty-one Elephants and Still Standing: A Story of P.T. Barnum and the Brooklyn Bridge

Author: Prince, April Jones

Illustration: Fancois Roca

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company

Comments

For fourteen years the citizens of New York and Brooklyn watched as a massive bridge grew out of the river. Soon people could walk from one city to the other, they wouldn’t have to rely on a ferry. Once it was done, everyone wondered if it would hold or would it all just fall back into the river. P.T. Barnum was genius. He would prove the bridge was safe and plug his show. One night in May 1884 he led 21 elephants across the bridge. The illustrations are exquisite. I don’t recall the last time I have seen such life like illustrations. The text helps explain the story, but I feel the illustrations could tell it pretty well by themselves. The illustrations show the size of the bridge and how frightening it might have been for those people. This is a great book for a little known story. The book also includes an author’s note explaining how she came about the story and thanking those that helped her, and my favorite part a reference list. A well balanced book that aches to be shared and told in classes. This is what history is about.