17 Kings and 42 Elephants

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42 Elcpb^n

Margaret Mahy pictures by Patxicia

MacCarthy

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Seventeen kings onjorty-two elephants

Going on a Journey through a wild wet night.

Baggy ears Little

like big

umbrellaphants.

eyes a-gleaming in thejungle

light....

Where all those kings and elephants are heading is a mystery, but

no travel-

had such a singing, dcincing good time. Here is your guidebook to ers ever

a tongue-twisting tropical paradise. Rollick by the river with the tigers and crocodiles, share a bird's-eye view with peacocks and pelicans, or scamper through the treetops with baboonsters and gorillicans. It's a royal romp through the jungle that you won't soon forget. Patricia MacCarthy's brilliantly colored batik paintings celebrate all the joyful noise of Margaret Mahy's delicious nonsense poem.

Dial

Books

for Young

Readers

2 Park Avenue New York, New York 10016

0408

ISBN D-flD37-QMSfl-S

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MAH

Mahy, Margaret

kings and 42 elephants

17

$11. 95

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TAYLOR CO.

First published in the United States 1987 by Dial Books for Young Readers A Division of NAL Penguin Inc. 2 Park Avenue, New York, New York 10016

Published in Great Britain by J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd. Original edition first published in 1972 This edition (reillustrated) first published in 1987 Text copyright ^ 1972 by Margaret Mahy Pictures copyright 1987 by Patricia MacCarthy All rights reserved Printed in Hong Kong by South China Printing Co. <:

OBE

3579

10

864

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Mahy, Margaret 17 kings and 42 elephants. Summary: Seventeen kings and forty-two elephants romp with a variety of jungle animals during their journey through a wild, wet night Fiction. 2. Stories in rhyme.) [1. Jungle animals 1. MacCarthy, Patricia, ill. II. Title. IIL Title: Seventeen kings and forty-two elephants. PZ8.3.M278Aaf 1987 (E) 87-5311

—

ISBN 0-8037-0458-5

The art for this book consists of batik paintings on silk, which were then color-separated and reproduced in full color.

17 Kinss

AMt,

42 ElqiVi^tits

Margaret Mahy pictures by Patricia

MacCarthy

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.,*WL<^ Seventeen kings on forty-two elephants Going on a journey through a wild wet night,

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Baggy ears

umbrellaphants, Little eyes a-gleaming in the jungle ligh like big

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Seventeen kings saw white-toothed crocodiles Romping in theriver where the reeds grow tall,

Green-eyed dragons, rough as rockodiles, Lying in the mud where the small crabs crawl.

— oh, what a lot of 'urns, Big feet beating in the wet wood shade, Forty- two elephants

Proud and ponderous hippopotomums Danced to the music that the marchers

n. ide.

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Seventeen kings sang loud and happily, Forty-two elephants swayed to the song.

Tigers at the riverside drinking lappily, Knew the kings were happy as they marched along.

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Who joined the singsong?

Cranes and pelicans,

Peacocks fluttering their fine

fantails,

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Flamingos chanting "Ding Dong Bellicans!" Rosy as a garden in the jungle vales.

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Tinkling tunesters, twangling trillicans, Butterflied and fluttered by the great green trees.

Big baboonsters, black gorillicans Swinging from the branches by their hairy knees.

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Kings in crimson, crowns all crystalline, Moving to the music of a single gong.

Watchers

moist and mistilline, Bibble-bubble-babbled to the bing-bang bong! in the jungle,

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Seventeen kings - the heavy night swallowed them, Raindrops glistened on the elephants' backs.

Nobody stopped them, nobody followed them — The deep dark jungle has devoured their tracks.

^

Margaret

Mahy books

has written over

forty

ers of

The Boy Who Was

all

ages.

for read-

Fbllowed Home (Dial), illustrated by Steven Kellogg, was an American Library Association Notable Book. Publishers Weekly called it "a sure cure for boredom." Her other titles include

The Haunting and The Changeover: A Supernatural Romance. Ms. Mahy lives in Lyttleton. New Zealand.

Patricia

MacCarthy has spent the last three-and-a-half years working on book illustrations, exhibitions, posters and greeting card designs. 17 Kings and 42 Elephants is Ms. MacCarthy s first book for Dial.

I0t7

ISBN

D-aO37-0M5fl-S