The Elephant and the Piano by Colette Hiller illustrated by Habila Adani

"As the music floated up into the air, Bonti shifted and swayed. 

He made delicate shapes with his trunk and circles on the group with his foot."

Bookseller blurb: Some stories are true. Others are make-believe. And some true stories are so amazing that it seems they must be make-believe even when they are not... This is one of those stories. In a sanctuary in Thailand lived an elephant called Bonti. Short-tempered and destructive, Bonti was alone - the other elephants (and humans) knew to keep their distance. But when a musician came to play the piano for Bonti, something incredible happened... The Elephant and the Piano tells the spectacular true story of Paul Barton and the elephants who loved to hear him play.

Here is the website for the author where you can read more about this book. The illustrator Nabila Adani lives in Jakarta Indonesia. I previously talked about her book Noah's New Home.

This story is based on the true story of Paul Barton who took a piano into the jungle in Thailand. Watch this video (it runs for 20 minutes and could be useful for teachers and it does have advertising sorry).

In 2011 Paul visited a sanctuary called Elephant's World. There he met an older elephant who seemed sad and withdrawn. Paul wondered if music might help him feel better. And it turns out, it did! ... Since then Paul has played piano for many elephants. If you have time the true story of this book was made into a documentary called 'Music for Elephants'.  Here is the trailer.

The Elephant and the Piano is a picture book that you might just read once and perhaps not think about too deeply but then you will reach the final pages with back notes about this true story and that is sure to pique the interest of your class or young reading companion. There is so much more to this book than just a simple story of a man playing a piano for an elephant. This is a book that warrants deeper exploration of the true story and with older students it will raise issues of animal welfare, exploitation, and even cruelty. 

Which piano pieces would you play to an elephant?  This could be a terrific discussion to have with your class or music group. I can imagine sharing five or six choices and then asking your students to pick the one they think an elephant would respond to and perhaps even enjoy. In this video he plays Elgar and Beethoven (6 minutes you could show part of this to your class); and in this video he plays Chopin, Bach and Schubert.  You could so easily link this book and the music with our 2026 CBCA slogan "Symphony of Stories". Why not listen to Sans Saens: The Elephant from Carnival of the Animals - this video has visuals for younger students (Cello and Piano).

Further reading:

ABC Classic

Green Matters

Animalko

Sometimes stories are make-believe, other times they are true. This is one of the latter even though it might well appear to be imagined. Books for Keeps

Hiller’s text strikes an ideal balance, providing enough detail to ground the story while maintaining a gentle, accessible pace for young readers. The backmatter enriches the narrative with information about the real Paul Barton, whose ongoing work playing piano for rescue elephants continues today. This inspiring account demonstrates how one person’s compassion and creativity can profoundly impact even the most angst-ridden soul. Kirkus

Something else you could think about in relation to this book if you work in a school library. Where will you put this book? It is a based on a true story so I agree with the library where I found this book because they have put it with other stories about elephants and not into their huge fiction/picture book collection. People talk about abandoning Dewey as a way to organise books in a school library but personally I feel Dewey is a good system especially if you use it with numbers after the decimal point and you of course make it work for your collection and your students. [636.96] is the Dewey number for zoo animals and elephants and the addition of one more number correctly puts this book with other books about the care of elephants (animal husbandry) [636.967]. At this same number and so on the same shelf you will find these three books (and probably others):

How to Move a Zoo