Name: Giraffes Can't Dance
ISBN: 9780545392556

Giles Andreae

Guy Parker-Rees

Gerald the giraffe is too clumsy to dance with all the other animals at the Jungle Dance, until he finds the right music. On board pages.

Giraffes Can't Dance

Gerald the giraffe is too clumsy to dance with all the other animals at the Jungle Dance, until he finds the right music.

Giraffes can't dance

ximena leon

Thanks Brie Larson for reading this book with us

Magdalene Lim

When you have to read to kids, you are supposed to be more expressive, yah? Having rhyming stories like this (and the Dr Seuss series) helps with that, creating a cadence that makes listening more inviting, me feels. 

I loved the illustrations in the book, the introduction to various animals (giraffes, warthogs, lions, baboons, etc) and can see how this could be great for kids who are in an animal/zoo phase. Also, with various great kids stories, there are various takeaways from the book (kinda like parables, eh?) 

1. Introduction to bullying 
(Animals laughed at Gerald because he could not dance. Teaching point: What to do in such a situation, was it good or bad for the animals to laugh. )

2. The power of encouragement 
(Cricket who believed in Gerald and said anyone could dance as long as they had the right music)

3.  Everyone is different  
(Each of the animals could dance a different dance and Gerald just took longer to discover his talent.)