Ten top giraffes in children's books

Dianne Hofmeyr grew up on the tip of Southern Africa. An art teacher, she has written teenage novels and picture books, and has won the M-Net Award for fiction, as well as two IBBY Honor Books. Her books include Zeraffa Giraffa, The Faraway Island, The Star Bearer and The Magic Bojabi Tree.

At the Guardian she tagged ten top giraffes in children's books, including:

Abigail by Catherine Rayner

Abigail the giraffe, loves to count but is bedazzled by the stripes of the zebras and the splotches of the cheetah and utterly fails to count all their spots and stripes. But then she discovers there is one thing she is good at counting because of her very long neck – the stars. Beautifully illustrated across spreads that suggest the wide savannah and the large open night skies of Africa and where the size of Abigail is emphasised by having her half disappear off the page. Lovely splotchy end pages too.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue