US Review of Books
"Dear reader, I am sure you realize our way of life was a most enriching experience,
but it wasn’t easy to say goodbye to a country and friends."
The Todd sisters offer a shared autobiographical look at their unique childhood, spent mostly outside America as daughters of the eleventh black man to be inducted into the United States Foreign Service in 1945. James and his wife, Norma, enthusiastically accepted this remarkable opportunity, embarking for Egypt where Angela would be born. Later, they would be stationed in Israel, Ann’s birthplace. An early lesson in racial inequality occurred when Angela and her parents visited America on home leave. Her father warned her to speak only in Arabic when they went to a restaurant in the South. She recalls that instead of being ostracized by the locals for their skin color, they were welcomed heartily as “foreigners.”
In adapting to the many countries where their father worked, the two girls gained fluency in several languages, immersing themselves in cultures that ranged from the urban atmospheres of Germany, Austria, and Canada to the crowded streets and unfamiliar landscapes of Zambia, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan, and India. Angela and a school friend once had lunch with Pablo Picasso, and Ann recalls spilling red nail polish on a white dress because a monkey jumped at her.
The narrative clearly shows that the girls were raised by determined and dedicated parents. The authors absorbed a strong moral code, pursued higher education, and both now work in fields that allow them to assist others less fortunate. They have helpfully arrayed their memoir with the aid of cartoon “portraits” to denote which of them is recounting an episode. Their book also contains letters from their father, corroborative documents, and photographs of the people they met and the atmospheres they imbibed in their thirty-five years of continual, exhilarating travel and transition. Their recollections may enhearten readers to step outside ordinary bounds and boldly go forth to embrace diverse cultures and new horizons.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review November 17 2023
Midwest
Book Review
Synopsis
The year was 1945, and the lives of black Americans showed little sign of improvement. We were still relegated to third-class status-forced to sit at the back of the bus, to drink from separate water fountains, to take only those menial jobs the white population considered beneath them.
In sharp contrast, that same year, our father became only the 11th black man "permitted" to join the United States Foreign Service. His first posting was Cairo, Egypt, where he was sent as a Civilian Security Guard. For the next 35 years, our family traveled the world, moving from country to country and culture to culture, where - perhaps surprisingly - we lived very ordinary lives in very extraordinary settings.
We have always considered our unusual upbringing a distinct privilege, and feel that this privileged background entails the responsibility to pass along important life lessons to others, such as:
If our parents could do it as black Americans living abroad in 1945, you can achieve anything you want to in the 21st century and beyond!
There is a big, beautiful world out there beyond your own personal boundaries, and we want to share some of the world's wonderful people and cultures with you through our stories and pictures.
As you travel through your life, always remember to Watch Out for the Elephants! -- regardless of what shape or form they might take!
Critique
Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, "Watch Out for the Elephants!" by co-authors Angela & Ann Todd will fully engage the mind and imagination of young readers ages 12-18 (and older) with respect to the endless possibilities and wonders of diverse cultures and ways of life -- and that the stories comprising "Watch Out for the Elephants!" will showcase the power of the human spirit in dealing with overcoming the prejudices and discriminations of previous generations have had to deal with -- and are now threatening to return.
Inspired and inspiring, "Watch Out for the Elephants!" is especially and unreservedly recommended for middle school, high school, and community library collections. Of special value and impact for readers with an interest in African-American biographies/ memoirs, it should be noted that while originally published in hardcover in 2005, "Watch Out for the Elephants!" is now also readily available for personal reading lists in a digital book format (Kindle, $16.00) as well.
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This review will also appear in the Cengage Learning, Gale interactive CD-ROM series "Book Review Index" which is published four times yearly for academic, corporate, and public library systems.
Additionally, this review will be archived on our Midwest Book Review website for the next five years at www.midwestbookreview.com
Kirkus Review
Awards & Accolades
OUR VERDICT: GET IT
A warm-hearted saga, full of entertaining, offbeat travelogue observations.
The globe-trotting Todd sisters recall encountering pachyderms, modernist painters, and other wonders as they accompanied their diplomat parents around the world in this rollicking memoir.
The authors’ father, Jim, was the 11th Black American accepted into the U.S. Foreign Service; he and his wife, Norma, worked in embassy and consular postings on four continents from 1945 to 1980, with their daughters frequently in tow. The Todds sketch a series of beguiling anecdotes in exotic locales: They held a Thanksgiving dinner in Cairo with tableware borrowed from an Egyptian princess next door, watched an exuberant Palm Sunday procession in Jerusalem, relished pastries in Salzburg, dined at a fancy Frankfurt restaurant under the hawklike gaze of three waiters per table, and serendipitously met celebrities (“I spent some time with Cathy in her room, and then Mr. Picasso took me to the basement to show me some of his paintings,” Angela recalls of an outing in Cannes). The family spent the 1960s in Africa, where they had run-ins with several snakes, “a huge, hairy scorpion” that bit Ann, a burglar (whom Norma expelled by pounding his hand with a high-heeled shoe), and the titular elephant, which almost collided with their car as they drove through Rhodesia in 1964. Perhaps the family’s most dangerous journey was to North Carolina in 1951 when, stopping at a Stuckey’s restaurant, they faced the hostility of an all-white crowd—until they started speaking Arabic to each other, whereupon the bigots welcomed them as Arabian dignitaries. This is very much a kid’s-eye view of the world, short on politics and sociology, focused instead on a luminous portrait of a warm family connection that persists through all the changes of scenery. The prose is limpid and evocative, alive with fresh, immediate perceptions and untempered longings. The result is a winsome picaresque that feels at home wherever its protagonist’s roam.