The Elephant Who Lost an Eye

An African elephant used to remove one if his eyes to play with it as if it were a ball.
One day, he threw his eye so high that it disappeared into the clouds.
As he only had one eye left, the elephant couldn’t see the other one well enough.
And as he stretched out his trunk, waiting for his eye to fall on it, suddenly, he heard… ¡Plash!

The elephant used to remove one of his eyes to play at throwing it up in the air, as if it were a ball. One day he threw it so high that the eye fell into the river. The elephant became nervous and began to stir the water. But the more his eye did not appear, the more agitated he became. He asked the animals in the jungle and the savannah but no one knew about his eye. Until a girl from a nearby village, who used to watch the elephant at play, helped him find a solution.
The great Cameroonian storyteller Boniface Ofogo shares this fable full of wisdom and deep humanism, about the importance of being calm to face any problem or difficulty in life.

Key points

• A fable to learn not to lose temper.
• A story that comes from African oral narration.
• Simple illustrations of great emotional power.

Boniface Ofogo

2023 – Banco del Libro de Venezuela, Best Books for Children and Young People Award
2011 – IBBY Brasil, Highly Recommended by FNLIJ
2011 – Special mention in Città Di Bella Award
2009 – CJ Cultural Foundation Award, Corea

Marc Taeger

2005 – Daniel Gil Award