THE GIRL WHO LOVED GIRAFFES

No girls allowed is a phrase Anne Innis Dagg has heard her whole life.

As a child, Dagg, a White Canadian, was told that a girl’s future was to be a good wife and mother. She could not play hockey with her brothers, and she was discouraged from studying science. When, as a young woman, she had saved up enough money to travel to Africa to study giraffes, her lifelong love, people from all over the globe told her they would not support her. Determined, Dagg left everything she knew to undertake a two-month journey to South Africa to document her beloved animals. Back in Canada, married and with her doctorate, Dagg couldn’t find a job as a full-time professor because men said she was unqualified and that married women should not work out of their homes. Dagg sued. She began writing about the inequality women faced, both in academia and in life in general. Over 50 years later, Dagg returned to Africa to help conservationists prevent the extinction of giraffes. The text is spare and straightforward, and each double-page spread features a footnote with further and explained facts and definitions. Several pages include letters to and from Dagg; unfortunately, nothing in the backmatter indicates whether these are real or imagined. Scenes of Africa emphasize the vast savannas that giraffes call home. Thisdale’s exquisite and detailed illustrations are so clear they almost seem like photographs. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A reminder that many appreciate you even if those in charge do not.