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    Elephants Cry Too
    Elephants Cry Too
    Elephants Cry Too
    Ebook52 pages29 minutes

    Elephants Cry Too

    By William Forde

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    About this ebook

    In the year 2000, when this book was first published, I wanted to create a book which could be given to a child who was starting school at the age of 5 years and which could be read by them progressively until the age of 13 years when they either moved up to ‘Middle or High School.’ I also wanted to mark their memory of the New Millennium with their own special book.
    Because the reading age between all children of between 5 years of age and 13 is so vast, this project naturally involved the writing of a number of stories that catered for children of different chronological ages and reading abilities.

    The outcome of this idea was the publication of the book ‘Bes’; which contains four interdependent stories that links in theme. The four stories concern four types of creatures, a bear (for 5-7 year old readers), an elephant (for 7-9 year old readers), a sheep (for 9-11 year old readers), and a New Millennium spiritual creature called ‘Bes’, who was part bear, part elephant and part sheep in both appearance and disposition( for 9-13 year old reader).

    ‘Elephants Cry Too,’ has been written for the 7-9 year old reader. It deals with multiple themes that embrace nature, mankind, the environment and spirituality. The story is told through the eyes of a small boy in India. The orphan boy never grows to normal height and is constantly being bullied by other village children. The boy’s only friends in the world are the animals of the forest. One day when his life is at the lowest of ebbs, the boy meets a holy man in the forest who tells him a story about the first herd of elephants. The old man’s story changes the boy’s life thereafter. The two most prominent story themes of ‘Elephant’s Cry Too’ deals with the ‘purpose of existence’ and the consequences that ‘every change brings with it a cost.’

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWilliam Forde
    Release dateAug 25, 2012
    ISBN9781476169279
    Elephants Cry Too
    Author

    William Forde

    William Forde was born in Ireland and currently lives in Haworth, West Yorkshire with his wife Sheila. He is the father of five children and the author of over 60 published books and two musical plays. Approximately 20 of his books are suitable for the 7-11 year old readers while the remainder are suitable for young persons and adults. Since 2010, all of his new stories have been written for adults under his 'Tales from Portlaw' series of short stories. His website is www.fordefables.co.uk on which all his miscellaneous writings may be freely read. There are also a number of children's audio stories which can be freely heard.He is unique in the field of contemporary children's authors through the challenging emotional issues and story themes he addresses, preferring to focus upon those emotions that children and adults find most difficult to appropriately express.One of West Yorkshire's most popular children's authors, Between 1990 and 2002 his books were publicly read in over 2,000 Yorkshire school assemblies by over 800 famous names and celebrities from the realms of Royalty, Film, Stage, Screen, Politics, Church, Sport, etc. The late Princess Diana used to read his earlier books to her then young children, William and Harry and Nelson Mandela once telephoned him to praise an African story book he had written. Others who have supported his works have included three Princesses, three Prime Ministers, two Presidents and numerous Bishops of the realm. A former Chief Inspector of Schools for OFSTED described his writing to the press as 'High quality literature.' He has also written books which are suitable for adults along with a number of crossover books that are suitable for teenagers and adults.Forever at the forefront of change, at the age of 18 years, William became the youngest Youth Leader and Trade Union Shop Steward in Great Britain. In 1971, He founded Anger Management in Great Britain and freely gave his courses to the world. Within the next two years, Anger Management courses had mushroomed across the English-speaking world. During the mid-70's, he introduced Relaxation Training into H.M. Prisons and between 1970 and 1995, he worked in West Yorkshire as a Probation Officer specialising in Relaxation Training, Anger Management, Stress Management and Assertive Training Group Work.He retired early on the grounds of ill health in 1995 to further his writing career, which witnessed him working with the Minister of Youth and Culture in Jamaica to establish a trans-Atlantic pen-pal project between 32 primary schools in Falmouth, Jamaica and 32 primary schools in Yorkshire.William was awarded the MBE in the New Year's Honours List of 1995 for his services to West Yorkshire. He has never sought to materially profit from the publication of his books and writings and has allowed all profit from their sales (approx £200,000) to be given to charity. Since 2013, he was diagnosed with CLL; a terminal condition for which he is currently receiving treatment.In 2014, William had his very first 'strictly for adult' reader's novel puiblished called‘Rebecca’s Revenge'. This book was first written over twenty years ago and spans the period between the 1950s and the New Millennium. He initially refrained from having it published because of his ‘children’s author credentials and charity work’. He felt that it would have conflicted too adversely with the image which had taken a decade or more to establish with his audience and young person readership. Now, however as he approaches the final years of his life and cares less about his public image, besides no longer writing for children (only short stories for adults since 2010), he feels the time to be appropriate to publish this ‘strictly for adults only’ novel alongside the remainder of his work.In December 2016 he was diagnosed with skin cancer on his face and two weeks later he was diagnosed with High-grade Lymphoma (Richter’s Transformation from CLL). He was successfully treated during the first half of 2017 and is presently enjoying good health albeit with no effective immune system.

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      Book preview

      Elephants Cry Too - William Forde

      ‘Elephants Cry Too!’

      (The story content is suitable for the 7-to 9-year-old reading age)

      by William Forde

      Illustration by Joel Stephen Breeze

      Copyright December, 2016 by William Forde

      Smashwords Edition

      Smashwords Edition, Licence Notes

      Thank you for downloading this e-book. This e-book is licenced for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Contents

      Author’s Foreword

      ‘Elephants Cry Too!’

      Author’s Background

      Other Books by this Author

      For the General Audience

      Romantic Drama Strictly for Adults

      Connect with William Forde

      Author’s Foreword

      A story about the world’s first herd of elephants who were as small as field mice. Being dissatisfied with their bodies, the leader of the elephant heard makes a Faustian pact with the forest sorcerer for body changes. The leader of the elephant heard gets all the changes they want, and changes it into the most magnificent beast of the forest, but at price that brings them unhappiness, death and near extinction.

      William Forde: January 2017.

      ‘Elephants Cry Too!’

      A crowd of children continued to shout abuse at Balbir while several village elders watched on. Balbir tried to get around them, but found his small body pressed into retreat, as the circumference of the encircling mob narrowed. He turned frantically, hoping to spot some gap in the ring of his tormentors.

      The loudness of their taunts began to attract the attention of other children nearby. They too came to join the sport and to add their voices of derision. Balbir struggled to control his mounting level of fear as the mob of bullies increased in size.

      Take that, Shorty! one of them sneered as he hit Balbir across the back of his neck with a splintered bamboo stick. The others laughed loudly as they joined in the attack also.

      Balbir initially hoped that some adult nearby would step in and stop the crowd of village children bullying him. However, once it became clear to him that the adults watching on had no intention of intervening to protect him, he decided to make a run for it.

      Turning his body in one direction to feign intent of movement, Balbir quickly spun back around, bobbed down, and scrambled through a gap in the crowd encircling him. Clawing hands grappled for a piece of his flesh as his small body clambered towards freedom.

      The mob chased Balbir through the village, waving sticks at him savagely and threatening to break his bones once they’d run him to ground. Their angry voices reflected the hatred in their hearts. They were convinced that Balbir was the cause of all their troubles that had beset their village, and they wanted rid of him at all cost.

      Balbir ran for his life. He ran as fast as his short legs would carry him; out beyond the edge of the village and then, towards his forest sanctuary. Balbir realised that none of the other village children would enter the forest unaccompanied by an adult. He knew that if he could reach the forest boundary before they caught him, he’d be safe; at least for the time being.

      Even the adults rarely ventured into the forest unless they were part of a larger hunting party, armed with weapons to protect themselves from the poisonous snakes, man-eating tigers and rogue elephants which lurked within.

      Balbir ran as fast as his tiny legs would propel his small body forward as the mob

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