Have You Seen a Giraffe Hat?: 11/03/19

Have You Seen a Giraffe Hat? by Irma Joyce is a picture book from my childhood that I stumbled upon while packing the bits and bobs of my bedroom as part of a move we undertook this past summer.

The book is actually older than I am and my grandmother, or some other relative, bought it at a discount when I was an infant. I'm guessing, though, that it was my grandmother for two reasons: she bought most of my books back then and giraffes were her favorite animal.

Like many children's books, this one is a repeating one, where the main character, in this case a giraffe, asks all the other characters one at a time, for help in finding a lost item. In this case, it's his hat.

In terms of story it's very similar to Have You Seen My Cat by Eric Carle. The difference, though, is that none of giraffe's friends have seen his hat and don't come up with a different but wrong hat. Thus there's no "this is not my hat!" component to the story.

In the end, though, the hat is found and it's been repurposed. Here is where giraffe steps up. He could get his back immediately but he choses to let the animal currently use it, finish using it. In return for his kindness and patience and basic decency, he gets a new green feather to put in his hat band.

Five stars

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