Once upon a time in the 1970s in a land called Bishopdale a teenager named Alida had an idea. This idea was spurred by a competition run by the council that asked local school children to suggest ideas for play equipment at Bishopdale Park. Alida's idea was simple - what if a slide was also an elephant?
Despite the brilliance of this idea Alida did not win the competition. The first-place winner had the idea of a fort that was built on top of the small hill in the park (it no longer survives). Alida's elephant slide idea came second (nabbing her a $5 prize!) and this playground pachiderm still stands proudly today as part of Bishopdale Park's play equipment.
Melanie went ahead and wrote her book, Elephant Park, which was published last year. Megan, a librarian at Ōrauwhata: Bishopdale Library invited Melanie to share her book with the children of Bishopdale during Everyday Hero Storytime at the library, and Bishopdale tamariki were also able to enter an Elephant Park colouring in competition. Over 300 children entered!
In the meantime Alida heard about the Elephant Park book and got in touch with Melanie - finally the mystery of the slide's origin was revealed!
At the annual Celebrate Bishopdale event in November Melanie joined the Bishopdale librarians again for a special storytime featuring her book Elephant Park IN the Elephant Park.
But even better than that the originator of the elephant slide and the author of the book about it got to meet at this event!
More
- Elephant slide inspires children's book Newsline, 9 January 2025
- Elephant Park by Melanie Koster
- Melane Koster's blog
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