Yours Sincerely, Giraffe

Megumi Iwasa's Yours Sincerely, Giraffe is a gentle, funny story for 6 year olds about a bored giraffe who posts a letter to whoever lives beyond the horizon.

What happens

Giraffe has everything he needs on the African savanna. Blue sky, a nice breeze, all the acacia leaves he can eat. What he's missing is a special friend. Someone to tell his feelings to.

Then he spots a sign. Pelican has started a delivery service, and Pelican is bored too. So Giraffe writes his very first letter, and asks Pelican to hand it to the very first animal he meets out there.

The horizon turns out to be MUCH further away than it looks. When Pelican finally gets there, it's all sea. The letter goes to Seal, who delivers the post in Whale Sea, and on to Penguin, the one and only pupil at Professor Whale's school.

Penguin has never heard of a neck. Where is it? Does he even have one? He decides the Professor's neck must be just in front of his tail, which means the Professor is almost all head (so THAT'S why he's so clever!).

Back on the savanna, Giraffe and Pelican try to picture a penguin from his letters. A snake with a beak, perhaps? Something with little wings, painted like a zebra? Giraffe has a better idea. He's going to dress up as Penguin.

It's a lovely one to share at bedtime. The story talks to you as it goes ("Sounds perfect, you say?"), and the jokes come from muddles that little ones will spot straight away. How do you picture an animal you've never met?

It's very kind, too. Pelican goes from bored to the hardest-working bird around, partly because the fish in Whale Sea are so tasty. Giraffe waits to open his first reply because having it feels so nice.

If your reader likes friendship stories where nobody is mean and the funny bits come from muddles, this is a real gem.

What to read next

If they fancy another giraffe and pelican team, try Roald Dahl's The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me. They move into an empty old house that a boy is dying to explore, and very odd things start flying out of the windows.