Riverdale resident, Zerelda Nothnagel, publishes new children's book

The only way to really make it work when you move so far from home is to kind of find your own tribe in the new place.”

Zerelda Nothnagel, children’s book author

A curious Little Elephant leaves home and travels hundreds of miles to a new land. But she soon becomes homesick and hides behind a dumpster to cry, when incidentally, she meets her new best friend, Lynxie.

This is the children’s book, “Little Elephant in the Big City” by Zerelda Nothnagel. 

Published in 2024, the story follows Little Elephant as she leaves her home in the South African savanna for the bustle of a big city. Upon her arrival, she is met with the excitement of a new environment, but longs for her home and her friends, mirroring the author’s own story of coming to America from her home in South Africa. 

“I was always kind of restless. . . there had to be more in the world to see than just [South Africa],” Nothnagel said. 

After living all over New York City, she settled in Riverdale in 2016. Nothnagel’s first time in America was spent as an au pair from 2007 to 2009, working as a nanny in New York City for a family in exchange for room and board. 

In her time, Nothnagel began to find her community with the second family she was placed with, where she began to encounter a community of South Africans living abroad. 

“The only way to really make it work when you move so far from home is to kind of find your own tribe in the new place,” Nothnagel said. 

Connecting with other South Africans while living in the city helped Nothangel make her new place feel like home. She explained that she didn’t find them, so much as they found her. 

Nothnagel works at the same au pair agency she started with in 2007, Au Pair in America, but now as a community counselor, assisting young people who are looking to experience the U.S. and take care of children. She is the vice president of programming for New York City Web Fest -- a New York based film festival celebrating web series, and she is actively working on producing a television show. For her day job,“I’ve always loved children. I love seeing the world through their eyes, and kind of seeing them grow and experience life and develop,” Nothnagel said. 

When Little Elephant finds herself at her weakest moment is when she meets her friend, Lynxie the caracal, a type of wild cat, and the pair bond over their shared heritage of South Africa. This character is based on Nothnagel’s real-life friend, Bianca, who sought out Nothnagel upon her arrival, to welcome her into the community. Despite having no prior connection, Bianca made it her mission to befriend Nothnagel and the two remain friends to this day. 

“I wanted to honor her with, like, this vibrant, sweet character in the book that's just, you know, as open as she is in real life as well,” Nothnagel said. 

She began writing the book in 2021 after the birth of her son, when she began reading a bevy of children’s books to him and combined her writing skills with her desire to continue engaging in literature with her child. 

Her first book was published in South Africa, written in Afrikaans, the language primarily spoken in the country. “Little Elephant in the Big City” is Nothangel’s first book published in English.

Nothnagel said her three-year-old son recognizes Little Elephant and proudly shows it off to guests in their home. 

“He’ll pick up the book and say, ‘This is Mommy’s book’,” Nothnagel said. 

In her passion for working with children, she said she thinks it's important to use the kinds of conversational language adults use to communicate and talk to them without “dumbing it down” to help them learn and grow. 

According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, the first three years of life are the most significant development years, making speech and language skills vital. 

Ron Kavanaugh, literary activist and founder and director of the Literary Freedom Project, a Bronx arts organization dedicated to putting books, culture and education at the forefront of programming, makes his case for reading in the home.

He emphasizes intergenerational relationships with reading, encouraging adults to read with and around the younger people in their home and vice versa.

“Read a book with them, even if it's a children’s book, just really be committed to ‘what does it mean to be literate in your home?’” Kavanaugh said. 

The Policy Circle, a grassroots organization dedicated to building solution-oriented leaders, states, literacy rates across the nation have decreased the most for children, kindergarten through second grade. The Policy Circle’s fall 2020 report found 37% of kindergartners nationwide were on track to learn how to read, down from 55% in 2019. 

Kavanaugh’s argument is that placing all the responsibility on children to read without seeing examples of reading in their lives is not a holistic approach. 

“Children tend to mimic what they see in adults,” Kavanaugh said. 

Nothnagel shared that as a single mother, when she isn’t working, she spends time with her son, using building blocks and toys to bond with him beyond their reading time. 

She would like to turn Little Elephant into a book series, replicating her stories from being an au pair into the life of the elephant. For her next adventure, Nothnagel said she thinks she’ll take Little Elephant to the circus, using the elephant’s character to mirror her own chaotic first six months in America.