Gemma O'NeillRecensioni

A very cute book, I bought it for a friend's little girl and had to read it for myself first.

This book is about a lion who is obsessed with his mane. He gets tricked by a crocodile and almost gets eaten. The Crocodile chases him and leads to the meerkats (the lion's friend). Even though the meerkats messes with Monty's mane, Monty puts on a brave face and saves his friends, the meerkats. This story can teach young children about the importance of friendship and to not be so self-centered. In the beginning, the illustrations were very bright and quite confusing. But I think O'Niel was trying to show off his beautiful mane.

Geoffrey the giraffe tries to make friends with the other animals. He's rather clumsy about it but finds many friends in the end.

The tall giraffe, Geoffrey has a hard time making friends with animals close to the ground because he is so clumsy. This makes him sad, but he eventually finds friends like monkeys and birds in the trees where he doesn’t have to bend down!

This started out wonderfully but the cadence of the story was lost about midway through the book. I would still share it in storytimes, as the illustrations are bright and engaging.

A lion who loves his mane learns that there is more to life that his mane, it is friendship. Monty is a lion who loves his amazing mane. He is selfish and thinks that is the only thing that matters in all the world. Eventually, Monty becomes friends with meekrats and learns that friendship is more important than his mane. This book is for grades 1-3. The book is very easy to read and the pictures are bright and colorful. The story has a good theme and that is that the best things in life are not possessions, but rather who is in our life. This is a good story to teach students about friendship and the importance of having that and companionship.

FANTASY: (primary, secondary)
This book is a good example of fantasy because it involves magic tracking the life of Geoffrey the giraffe who keeps getting tangled with all the other animals. This would not happen in real life. It also involves alliteration.

This was a very sweet book, and a good example of fantasy fiction. It follows the story of Geoffrey the talking Giraffe, who has a hard time making friends with other animals, until one day he makes an important discovery. I think this story would be good for lessons on acceptance and real friendship.It has beautiful illustrations and an easy to follow storyline. Media: Mixed Media Art.

This 2015 picture book has the flavor of folktale stories or fables. The illustrations particularly are great, with a lot of textures and vibrant colors, original in style and use of media. The story is simple, but teaches a valuable lesson on vanity, friendship and self-acceptance.

Vain lion learns to have a deeper appreciation of his friends. Appealing alliterative text with bold, colorful illustrations.

Candlewick's Templar imprint isn't one I usually look to for picture books. Somehow they all just seem, not exactly short, but to have abbreviated stories. This one isn't any different, but what it does have is truly superb art.

Geoffrey is a young and clumsy giraffe. He just can't control his long legs, neck and all those awkward bits in between. When he tries to make friends...it does not end well. But then he finds some animals who can use help and some more that don't have any friends either and it turns out there are some creatures that would love to be friends with him after all!

The illustrations are an explosion of color, texture and shapes. The endpapers show rich red, orange, and brown abstract shapes which, when you open to the title page, you can see are part of the colorful blotches on Geoffrey's skin. Geoffrey has a sandy color and texture with the splashes of color and all the animals have the same blend of fancy and realism. The elephants show textured images drawn into their skins and the flamingos have brilliantly hued feathers tucked into the thick pink lines of their bodies. When Geoffrey has his final wet, muddy disaster, the page is splashed with thick white and blue shades. When he looks up at the stars with his new friends, the sky is thickly sprinkled with fiery specks. It's not just the colors and textures that make the art awesome. Geoffrey never quite fits on the page and all we see is bits and pieces of him - head, neck, flailing legs - all showing how doesn't fit in and is always getting into trouble. On the final page, when he's found friends and a place where he belongs, he's neatly curled up, his whole body shown on the page, with all his friends tucked around him.

Verdict: The story isn't particularly new or fresh, but it's told in a light, fun way with short enough text to make it fit into a toddler or young preschool storytime. The art is the real draw here and both parents and children will enjoy the vibrant colors and clever mixed media illustrations. Recommended.

ISBN: 9780763666590; Published 2014 by Templar/Candlewick; Borrowed from another library in my consortium; Added to the library's order list