Giraffes Can't Dance - Giles Andreae

'Giraffes Can't Dance' is a really quite delightful little picture book which is written by Giles Andreae and illustrated by Guy Parker-Rees. The book tells the story of Gerald the Giraffe who, due to his large size, is rather gangly and clumsy! He is very good at standing still in order to munch the leaves off the trees, but at most other things he is rather hopeless. Now most of the year, Gerald could probably live with his clumsiness, but there was one annual occasion which caused him all sorts of difficulties and embarrassment - The Junngle Dance - where all the animals were expected to turn up and dance in the competition! There are some lovely ...  Read the complete review

Giraffes can't dance is a lovely book and is written by Giles Andreae and illustrated by Guy Parker-Rees. On the inside of the front cover there is a little write up from the author about where he got his inspiration for the book. He says that he went on a trip to Kenya and saw how beautiful giraffes were when they were galloping and couldn't get his head around how graceful they were. The image that his write up depicted in my head really moved me and I had an urge to switch on Youtube to see if I could find some images of giraffes galloping. After watching them on screen I understand how he wanted to write a book about them because to see it on screen was ...  Read the complete review

Giraffes Can't Dance - by Giles Andreae and Guy Parker-Rees I have reviewed another children's book as I have recently moved house and at the moment, I am busy unpacking all my children's books. ***What's it all about?*** The author Giles Andreae is also the author behind the Purple Ronnie greeting cards and calendars etc. The same upbeat rhyming tone is also used in Giraffes Can't Dance. He has also written other storybooks and poems, such as The Lion Who Wanted to Love and Commotion in the Ocean. This is the story of Gerald. Gerald is a giraffe who might best be described as 'gangly', and just a bit challenged in the ...  Read the complete review

THE STORY... A lovely story with a rhyming text. In brief, it is about a giraffe, Gerald, who dreads the Jungle Dance "where every single animal turns up to skip and prance". The warthogs waltz, the lions tango, and all the animals strut their stuff on the dance floor until Gerald turns up, when they all start to laugh, becaus ethey remember from previous years that he can't dance. Gerald starts to creep home and on the way meets a cricket who tells him that "sometimes when you're different you just need a different song". He tells Gerald to imagine that the moon is playing music for him, because ...  Read the complete review

At first glance this is a lovely paperback book. It's nice and big (about A4 size) and is filled with really bright illustrations. The RRP for this book is £5.99 though we picked it up in a book sale for £2.49. On Amazon I see they are selling it for £3.90 at the time of writing this. When I first sat and read this to the grandson I thought he'd really enjoy this. It's all written in rhyme and there are loads of bright and colourful animals splashed across all the pages. The animals are at a jungle dance and Gerald the Giraffe (pictured on the front cover) steps up to do his dance but gets laughed off the stage by the other ...  Read the complete review