LoveReading4Kids Says
Giraffe is different to look at. She has six legs and 3 ears. Both are useful and she is happy having extra legs for crunching through leaves and extra ears for listening to birdsong. But she is not happy that when she is out playing with other animals they make her feel an outsider.
Everything changes when the seeker in a game of hide-and-seek played by an exuberant flock of beautifully multi-coloured birds discovers her hiding behind a tree. Just as Giraffe is a giraffe and a half so the bird is a bird and a half. She has three wings and three legs.
When Giraffe explains that no one wants to play with her because she is different, the bird offers excellent advice: ‘Just show yourself off to the world./ Be Proud and Strong and Brave and Bold’.
It’s a powerful message for Giraffe and also for all readers.
Reviewed by Julia Eccleshare M.B.EJulia Eccleshare has a lifetime of working within children’s books as a critic, an editor, an author and a commentator.
More reviews by Julia Eccleshare M.B.E About Giraffe and a Half
Giraffe and a Half believes her difference stops her from making friends, but can Bird and a Third help her to overcome her shyness?
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Giraffe and a Half Synopsis
Giraffe and a Half believes her difference stops her from making friends, but can Bird and a Third help her to overcome her shyness?
Giraffe and a Half has six legs and three ears, which is brilliant for dancing and listening, but not so good for making friends. But one day, playing on her own, she meets Bird and a Third, who knows that sometimes, it's our insecurities that hold us back the most.
This delightful story will encourage children to embrace their differences. Based on Nicola Kent's own experiences as a child with disabilities, and her belief that although ongoing health issues can bring many challenges to life, having lovely friends doesn't need to be one of them.
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781839132766 |
| Publication date: |
1st August 2024 |
| Author: |
Nicola Kent |
| Illustrator: |
Nicola Kent |
| Publisher: |
Andersen Press an imprint of Andersen Press Ltd |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| Pagination: |
32 pages |
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About Nicola Kent
Nicola Kent is an award-winning author and illustrator of children’s books that have been published in over 20 different languages.
Nicola has been working with words and pictures all her life. She did a degree in Art and English, worked as a TV producer for the BBC and Channel 4, wrote scripts for children’s animation, and finally kickstarted her dream of a career in children’s books via an MA in Children’s Book Illustration.
Nicola likes her books to feel handmade as if created at the kitchen table especially for her reader. Her illustrations are made with ink, watercolour, pencil and various printing techniques which she collages together digitally.
Nicola grew up in Holloway, London and now lives up the road in Hackney with her family, cat and dog. She loves gardening and cycling and thinks knowing how and when to be silly is one of the most important life skills.
Nicola has a tracheostomy and a very quiet voice. This was caused by damage to her airway during treatment in intensive care when she was a child, and multiple surgeries since. The left side of her diaphragm is also paralysed which means her breathing is difficult on stairs or hills!
Nicola’s experience of chronic health issues and disability are very specific but have given her insight into more universal challenges of coping with difference. She also understands from many years of experience the difficulties of juggling normal life with the patient’s life: treatment, appointments and health admin all add to the often tiring repercussions of functioning with a physical difficulty. And through her direct experience of a sudden and critical childhood illness, she has great empathy and understanding of children coping with the aftermath of trauma.
Nicola’s books often draw on her personal experience to create universal ideas that resonate widely, for example in The Strongest Mum and Giraffe and a Half. She regards warm humour as massively important and feels strongly that books that give those qualities to children can be hugely healing as well as entertaining and life affirming.
Nicola feels strongly that children with differences and disabilities should also feature in books in which that difference or disability is not the focus. Most people with a disability do not want it to define them. In Measuring Me, for example, there is a girl with a tracheostomy and a boy with a walking frame, but these are incidental in a book which is about extraordinary facts of measurement and scale in the human body.
Nicola enjoys events and school visits and feels it’s important and valuable that children are given the opportunity to meet people living with a disability who are also getting to work in a dream job!
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