Small as an Elephant Reading Level: Grades 3 - 6 Jack and his
mother go camping in Maine over Labor Day weekend, but when Jack
wakes up on their first morning, his mother is gone, along with
her tent and the car. Jack's mother has done this before, so
he's worried... but knows she'll come back eventually. But the
end of the weekend looms closer, and Jack's food money has long
since run out. Jack knows that if he tells anyone his mother has
disappeared again, he'll be taken away from her, so he starts
heading home, alone. Small as an Elephant is a wonderful urban
survival story about a boy who loves nothing more than his
mother, and elephants. A few similar stories of kids in charge
of themselves: