One of my favourite stories is a children’s book called But No Elephants written by Jerry Smath. The book is about grandma Tildy, living alone doing all the work to maintain her cottage. One day a pushy salesman comes to the door selling pets. The old lady comes across as ‘fine, “I’ll buy what you’re selling as long as it’s not an elephant”.
Each time she gets a new pet and the pet provides a welcome addition to her home by contributing in some way. A bird provides music, a beaver helps chop wood. Eventually the weather is changing, and the poor salesman is standing outside looking sad. He has one last animal to sell, and it is the one thing she didn’t want.
The story is laid out to introduce a pattern of the grandmother getting an animal and having another contributing member to her household. It then goes through her conflict. The salesperson leaves the elephant behind. She is now living with an elephant because her and the other animals feel bad that the elephant is freezing outside. The animals and Grandma Tildy are now living in a cramped cottage where the story reaches its climax and are wondering how they will make it through the winter and food becomes scarce due to the elephant’s enormous appetite.
The story pleasantly reveals in its resolution, how the elephant, feeling like a burden, discovers that his perceived flaw of being too big, can be of benefit. It just takes some thinking outside the box to discover how the elephant can be a contributing member while also saving the day.
Pixar before Pixar
Through the 22 rules of story telling according to Pixar lens, this story was easily relatable, you could both put yourself in the position of being the grandmother who was being pushed into doing something she didn’t want to do, and the elephant who was left with Grandma Tildy, not wanted, and feeling like a failure without even being given a chance.
It had a clear direction that was apparent through the whole story with the line grandma said to the salesman each time “But no elephants” that acted as foreshadowing. Ultimately having you root for the elephant who did not have a choice in being there.
The story spine
This story was a perfect example of a story spine
Once upon a time The story set with Grandma Tildy
Everyday she worked hard
But one day an animal salesman came
Because of that, she bought animal after animal
Until she ended up with an elephant she didn’t want
And, ever since then, she didn’t have to work so hard, had lots of animal friends and elephants were welcome.
EXSM 3989 - Digital Storytelling Class Blog 