If you have small children, you have surely seen Elmer's books in the children's book section from time to time. But, if this is not the case, or if you know them but would like to have a list of all the books that have been published, we are going to give you that information below.
Know who Elmer is, who wrote these books and how many titles are on the market. Shall we start?
Who is Elmer
The first thing you should know about Elmer's books is that Elmer is a collection of books with an animal as the protagonist, a multicolored elephant. The It was first published in 1968. and, years later, it was republished, with much more success by the way.
But where does Elmer come from? Well, apparently it is related to the mascot of the Bordeaux zoo, in France. Elmer is, as we have told you, an elephant, but not just any one but its body is made up of colored squares. It has red, orange, blue, white, black, yellow, green, pink... These paintings give the sensation of being arranged like patchwork.
As for his personality, he is a very happy elephant and loves jokes. And he himself does not feel comfortable being so different from the rest of the elephants. So one of his first adventures is about his escape from the pack in which he lives to find a solution to be the same as the others. And what he does is paint his entire body gray to be a normal elephant.
The problem is that, like this, no one recognizes him, and when it starts to rain and the paint leaves his body, his own colors come to light again.
The books are indicated for the little ones and not only teach them values, but also about cultural diversity.
Who writes the Elmer books
The person behind the Elmer books is the writer David McKee. However, we must give you bad news and that is that this English author and illustrator died in April 2022, leaving Elmer's collection orphaned and with no more books since that year. In Spain some have been published in 2023 but they are surely titles from previous years that had not been translated into Spanish.
But Who was David McKee? He became famous for the Elmer series, his colorful elephant. This in turn, He was inspired by the work of Paul Klee. He was born in 1935 in Tavistock, United Kingdom, and died in Plympton, also United Kingdom.
The truth is that we don't know much about the author because not much has been made known about his biography. But what we can tell you is that You will not only find books with her name, but also with her pseudonym, Violet Easton. Beyond this, we know that he went to work while he was still in college creating comic strips for the national press.
In addition to Elmer, The author created another series of characters that were also quite successful, such as King Rollo, Melric the Wizard or Mr Benn. However, these are not as well known as those of Elmer, who was his star character since it began to be published (although in reality he published other books in addition to children's ones).
How many Elmer books are there?
Below you have the list of all Elmer books that have been published until 2022 (according to the list that can be seen on English Wikipedia):
- Elmer (1989; originally published 1968)
- Elmer Again (1991)
- Elmer on Stilts (1993)
- Elmer and Wilbur (1994)
- Elmer's Colors (1994)
- Elmer's Day (1994)
- Elmer's Friends (1994)
- Elmer's Time (1994)
- Elmer in the Snow (1995)
- Elmer's Pop-Up Book (1996)
- Elmer and the Wind (1997)
- Elmer Plays Hide and Seek (1997)
- Elmer and the Lost Bear (1999)
- Elmer and the Stranger (2000)
- Look! There's Elmer (2000)
- Elmer and Grandpa Eldo (2001)
- Elmer's Concert (2001)
- Elmer and the Butterfly (2002)
- Elmer's New Friend (2002)
- Elmer and the Hippos (2003)
- Elmer's Puzzle Book (2003)
- Elmer and the Serpent (2004)
- Elmer and Rosa (2005)
- Elmer and Aunt Zelda (2006)
- Elmer's Baby Record Book (2006)
- Elmer and the Rainbow (2007)
- Elmer's First Counting Book (2007)
- Elmer's Opposites (2007)
- Elmer and the Big Bird (2008)
- Elmer's Special Day (2009)
- Elmer and Daddy Red (2010)
- Elmer and Super El (2011)
- Elmer, Rosa and Super El (2012)
- Elmer and the Whales (2013)
- Elmer and the Monster (2015)
- Elmer's Christmas (2015)
- Elmer and the Race (2016)
- Elmer and the Flood (2016)
- Elmer and the Melody (2017)
- Elmer's Ride (2018)
- Elmer's Birthday (2019)
- Elmer and the Lost Treasure (2020)
- Elmer and the Bedtime Story (2021)
- Elmer and the Gift (2022)
- Search and Find Elmer's Colors (2023)
- Search and find Elmer's numbers (2023).
It must be said that not all books are translated, although the vast majority of them are, so you have quite a few titles to choose from if you like these topics.
What else is there besides Elmer's books
When a story is successful you know that, sooner or later, more things will come out about it. And that's the same thing with Elmer. In addition to having a large collection of merchandising, He also has an appearance on the children's program Anytime Tales, where stories are told. In fact, five of those stories were told on this show.
Apart, Jonathan Rockefeller created a musical version of the story that toured the UK in 2019 to make the little ones enjoy.
Beyond the United Kingdom, where it has succeeded has been in the United States. In both countries Elmer has his own website that the little ones can access to have fun with this elephant. In the case of Spain, although many of his books have been published, the success is not as great as in these previous cases, but it has caught the attention of many parents and, above all, the little ones.
Did you know Elmer's books? What are your favorite books? Leave them in comments so you can recommend them.