Marian Hailey Moss known for her heart lifting poignant montage of children’s book centering on the education of animal love & the humane treatment for animals is the most compassionate baby elephant tale of NALA, the vivacious jocular elephant as could only have been created by Marian Hailey Moss with the unique Moss touch.

NALA has been a creative process of uncharted territory as this is a synthesis of that unadulterated pure love & inspiring essence Moss gives to her splendid animal characters. Marian is never afraid to go to places where other children’s authors have never been to as this time NALA is transformed into an interactive coloring book.

With each stroke & crayon the interactive child becomes creator as well with an interactive synergy of color, light & movement as each page pops up with the vitality of an interactive dynamic. Each page becomes alive as the child colors NALA & NALA’s pristine non violated world comes to light. NALA is an interactive stroke of genius for the young developing mind. I could just hear that soothing tantalizing voice of Marian narrating throughout this book of elated elephant marvels for young developing minds.

Special noteworthiness is the swirling swerving free style illustrations of Marc Chalvin moving in motion with each page as Mr.Chalvin brings rhythmic life & verve to each eye popping illustration. Mr.Chalvin has contributed his flowing artistic style with almost all of Marian Hailey Mosses books. This is a very prolific & ever innovative collaboration breaking new ground in every project they do. As the child reads NALA, the baby elephant living in Africa, children will enjoy & learn that NALA like all elephants live in resonance & in constant harmony with the trees, flowers birds insects & their fellow animal neighbors.

Nature is also a family member to the world of elephants. Throughout NALA there’re strong family ties because elephants never forget their loving family members as they’re inseparable & it’s a love nothing can severe. NALA introduces her elephant grandma SALANA, a matriarchal heroine of NALA’s beloved family. Coloring the book & this interaction of any child experiencing NALA will also experience the daily diet of elephants which is clearly important to the elephant’s survival.

The illustration of the elephants pulling trees out of the ground is very telling. It’s unthinkable to ever destroy the habitat of an elephant. This would be one of the messages Marian is carrying across to young minds. As Marian explains elephants can eat as much as 300 pounds a day of fruits & plants a day. The selflessness of the elephant psychology is also in the elephant dynamic as Marian explains how helpful & totally purely unselfish elephants are as they share the leftovers with their smaller neighbors. Here are moral lessons in everyday ethics as Marian is a great ethical humane mentor for young developing minds.

When Marian also explains how much water elephants need which is in NALA, elephants drink 30 gallons of water which Marian goes on to further explain is equal to 480 cups of water. Here’s an issue in itself that water for elephants must be clean & non toxic. In these elephant habitats the pollution of water must never happen. Elephants always need unpolluted water without toxins. Marian is clear on the sanctity of the elephants & their habitats must also be sacrosanct. Marian loves humor &she finds humor in a lot of the wildlife she writes about & there’s no exception here when NALA learns how to use the trunk that nature gave her.

It’s funny but every baby elephant has to learn how to properly use their trunks. So humorous when NALA says that the trunk has a life of its own. Here’re points of light & nature’s wisdom from Marian showering on her audience. Did you know that elephants also dream? There’s much to love here as NALA dreams of sitting on her throne with the ecstasy of the nature she knows & loves.

Marian doesn’t skip a beat telling young minds that elephants are also dreamers & if we could visualize their dreams what awesome elephant dreaming streams would be envisioned! The playfulness of elephants is not only great fun but also part of elephant psychology & a necessary part of living. Scenes of NALA playing with friends are also illustrated. One favorite illustration in the book is that of NALA’s uncle OBI playing with Wiggles a mouse. NALA is inundated with overdoses of ecstatic joy,humor & elephant insights.

You can not talk about elephants without talking about elephant emotions & this is very well highlighted with NALA. It tugs at the heart strings when Marian reminds the young reader & colorist that elephants have very fragile human like range of emotions & feelings. These are hypersensitive very intelligent giants. NALA says she sometimes feels sad & sometimes worried & scared. We know the answer to that very well.

The saddest most horrifying illustration is that of a pyramid of ivory which is the ever present man made plague against elephant survival. The elephant tusks as Marian asserts are the grown up teeth which is ivory. This is not to be messed with. I love the illustration of the peace symbol which NALA is holding up with her mom also holding it also. This is Marian’s clever wittiness giving her young readers important messages! Marian has a bracelet which she’s sharing & it’s a bracelet which says” NO IVORY”. Marian wears this no ivory bracelet & I also wear this no ivory bracelet from Marian. It’s jewelry with an important message.

The NALA book party with Marian hosting was one of the best vegan book parties in Manhattan NY at its yummiest. The NALA book celebration party was one of vegan merriment in a beautiful super clean uncluttered NY apartment which is Marian’s apartment like no other NY apartment with the most simple but quietly beautiful interior design. This NY apartment is like no other NY apartment I thought to myself.

Marian’s apartment has an ambience made of stardust spic & span. The guests all hung their names on Marian’s exquisitely decorated Christmas tree as Marian’s pianist played movie & broadway songs on the small portable electric piano. It added a hypnotically musical effect to the already enticing rapturous atmosphere of Marian’s NALA party. The ambience was also very much charged with the predominating energized messages of NALA to save the elephants now & eradicate the ivory trade now. Marian spoke about keeping the elephant species alive as Marian stood with her co-author collaborator of “An Elephant Called Butterfly” Lois Meredith. It was a pleasure to meet Ms.Meredith also. I thought as I munched on the scrumptious vegan gourmet cookies Marian had for her guests “What an exuberance of living glimmering dots of light Marian brought together!”

Each guest was treated like royalty by Marian. Marian is an avatar expressionist of nature & nature’s own. Friends of Marian & NALA gathered together in this feast of vegan gourmet masterfulness celebrating the publication of NALA to which everyone contributed. The display table & the vegan food was just ethereal & if you could taste what ethereal tastes like, this was it & the place to be! Go to Marian's website for more on NALA. In the back of the NALA book are friends of NALA & I’m proud to be one of them.

Marian’s photographer Patricia was there & took photos of everything. Marian’s vegan NALA party was a feast for the senses party & the gustatory senses! No vegan cake was like the NALA cake with NALA portrayed on the vegan cake. Marian raises the bar taking nature’s wonders & its wondrous creatures like NALA to new avenues of thought & design. Thumbs up for Marian, Mr.Chalvin & NALA!