In 1827 the pasha of Egypt gave the King of France a giraffe as a gift. This book brings that story to life for children with details about the journey (they cut a hole in the deck of the ship that she took up the Nile so her head could fit through!), quirky illustrations by Jon Cannell mixed with images of real artifacts, and relevant easy-to-understand maps. There is some French peppered throughout, and a nice pronunciation guide in the back for those of you who only speak 2 languages like me: English and bad English (sorry, really old Bruce Willis line from the 5th Element).
Belle, the giraffe in the story, caused quite a stir in France as she walked the 500 miles from Marseille to Paris wearing a raincoat and boots the fashioned just for her.
This book is probably better for the elementary crowd, but my guys sat through it, and had a lot of questions. If you're looking for a fun opportunity to bring history to life, I felt this book hit it just right. I can't wait to check out her other book - MyTravels with Clara!
1 comments:
i love good book suggestions...i'm going to request it from our library here! who doesn't want to ready about a giraffe going to egypt???
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