A Giraffe Called Geranium by Ainslie Manson, illustrated by Mary Baker (Red Diamond Books, Bowen Island, B.C.) $19.95
Ainslie Manson's 13th book is a charming picture book collaboration with friend and artist Mary Baker, who, like Manson, is a longtime B.C. West Coast resident.
The reader is introduced to Geranium the giraffe when she wanders up to Susanna's seaside home one day and is welcomed with open arms. Not too surprisingly, Susanna discovers there is a downside to having an enormously tall and hungry pet. Truckloads of vegetables must be purchased and the end result of all this eating is unpleasant as Geranium appears not to be housebroken!
Susanna makes a lot of other accommodations including cutting a hole in her ceiling so the giraffe can stand up straight. The neighbours are not so pleased to have their fruit gobbled right off the tree and when winter arrives the giraffe reacts badly to the cold. She also makes it clear she is very homesick.
When Susanna finally realizes that her pet is a wild animal that will only be happy in its own habitat she enlists the help of a sea captain friend and they deliver a happy Geranium home to Africa.
The watercolour illustrations are vibrant and impressionistic - Geranium is a pretty irresistible giraffe with her doe-like eyes and long lashes. She sashays through a brightly coloured seaside landscape or dashes across a sun-drenched African veldt. Susanna clearly loves giraffes as she is shown in one illustration with a giraffe-patterned pillow, throw and slippers.
The maps on the endpapers indicate Geranium's voyages between Canada and Africa and an appendix provides some interesting facts about giraffes.
Fran Ashdown was the children's librarian at the Capilano branch of the North Vancouver District Public Library. She was thrilled to see giraffes while on safari in Africa. For more information check your local libraries.
