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Gordon The Giraffe by Bruce Brown, illustrated by A. Shelton
Gordon lives with his mother in the hidden kingdom of Ugladunga.
Every day, the adult giraffes gather on the other side of the waterfall, but the kid giraffes meet to play the game Mulunga Doo in pairs: one boy and one girl.
When Gorden is asked to play the game by Gary, they have a wonderful time - until the other young giraffes laugh at them and ask Gordon if he is a girl.
Hurt, Gordon flees to his mother who tells him that he must follow his heart.
The next day, the boy giraffes plan a mean trick to keep Gordon in line, but their plan backfires and only Gordon can save the day...
It's beautifully illustrated, and a story that would have moved me as a child. I wish I would have had this picture book read to me when I was a kid!
This story was published by the author, who has been writing graphic novels for nearly nine years and whose work has been featured in The Chicago Tribune, The Guardian, The Independant, and Rue Morgue magazine.
The artist is anonymous, and the name used is of a friend of the illustrator "who passed from AIDS." This project is a tribute to that friend.
Add your review of "Gordon The Giraffe" in comments!
2 comments:
Purchased because of your post.
from my blog: The whole book is illustrated like the cover. Simple, bold, just right. Just like other picture books, this one has large print words with few to a page. The thing is, two boys want to play a game that is usually played by a boy and a girl. The mother really steps up in the story with her unconditional love and great advice.
The print edition is coming soon and it would be a worthy addition to any children's library.
It looks like a beautiful picture book and I appreciate that the bullying or the "I'm different" message is based on gender. Sometimes when you see books about bullying where the characters are animals, that is not the case or it takes a few more steps to interpret it that way.
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