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K-Gr 3—Cox opens this fact-based story on just the right note: "There was once a lovely elephant seal who lived in the city." A boy named Michael is fascinated with the marine mammal that chooses to live by or swim in the tranquil Avon River that passes by Christchurch's botanical garden. When the seal, named after the Queen of England, narrowly avoids death after relaxing on a warm city street, residents volunteer to move her to an elephant seal colony. After she makes her way back, they try two additional times to relocate her. Finally, knowing that city dwellers were secretly happy to see Elizabeth re...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

Renowned long-distance swimmer Cox here celebrates a swimmer of a different species: a twelve-hundred-pound elephant seal that preferred the warm banks of the Avon River in Christchurch, New Zealand, to the ocean's cold saltwater and the company of her fellow seals on the beach. Unfortunately, "Elizabeth" (named for the queen of England) sometimes hauled herself up onto the city's roads and obstructed traffic; accord...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

Twelve-hundred-pound elephant seal Elizabeth preferred the Avon River in Christchurch, New Zealand, to the ocean. She sometimes hauled herself up ...Log In or Sign Up to Read More