MOUSE & GIRAFFE

A giraffe and mouse don’t see eye to eye—quite literally.

Giraffe is so very tall, and Mouse is so very small. They live next door to each other and meet every day by their mailboxes for a sip of tea. But Mouse and Giraffe’s arguments are endless. Giraffe, whose head is blazing in the sun, thinks it is much too hot. Mouse, who is lounging in Giraffe’s shadow, thinks it is delightfully cool. “Hot!” complains Giraffe. “Not!” retorts Mouse. But when Giraffe moves to the shade, Mouse is left in the sun. The pair bicker about smells in the air, the moon in the sky, and whether a recent rainstorm was delightful or a major inconvenience, each having conflicting opinions because of their own height and perspective. Corace’s inked illustrations humorously highlight the discrepancies between the squabbling two. But when Mouse takes to bed with a cold, all differences are put aside, and being a good friend is the only thing that matters. The conceit is clever, and the lesson unfolds naturally, but Mouse and Giraffe never fully communicate what they are learning about each other’s viewpoints. Further discussion may be required after the book is closed. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A thought-provoking exploration of understanding differences.