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The Giraffe And The Pelly And Me
by
Who needs a ladder when you've got a giraffe with an extending neck?
The Ladderless Window-Cleaning Company certainly doesn't. They don't need a pail, either, because they have a pelican with a bucket-sized beak. With a monkey to do the washing and Billy as their manager, the business is destined for success. Now they have their big break-a chance to clean all 677 windows o ...more
The Ladderless Window-Cleaning Company certainly doesn't. They don't need a pail, either, because they have a pelican with a bucket-sized beak. With a monkey to do the washing and Billy as their manager, the business is destined for success. Now they have their big break-a chance to clean all 677 windows o ...more
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Paperback, 79 pages
Published
2000
by Scholastic
(first published 1985)
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Start your review of The Giraffe And The Pelly And Me

A short story about a Giraffe, Pelican and Monkey who open up a ladderless window cleaning company, who become friendly with a small boy called Billy. It's full of all the Dahlian humour and whimsy and nonsense, but like always it has a nice serious edge to it.
Very charming, though definitely not his best and quite unsubstantial in reality. In general, it's written as well as all his others but I think the emphasis on the whimsy really helped this particular story, especially since it was more a ...more
Very charming, though definitely not his best and quite unsubstantial in reality. In general, it's written as well as all his others but I think the emphasis on the whimsy really helped this particular story, especially since it was more a ...more

May 26, 2017
Matt
rated it
liked it
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Matt by:
Mariah
Shelves:
children-s,
audiobook
Another great re-read!
Bring on more Dahl! I feel as though I can sprint through these books (which, I admit, are geared for children) and share them with the world. After a sweets shop goes on the selling block, our narrator, Billy, watches with amazement when a new company mysterious appears, as if overnight. Billy goes to check things out, where he comes across a giraffe sticking its head out of the top-floor window. Thereafter, a pelican emerges to share the story of their window cleaning bus ...more
Bring on more Dahl! I feel as though I can sprint through these books (which, I admit, are geared for children) and share them with the world. After a sweets shop goes on the selling block, our narrator, Billy, watches with amazement when a new company mysterious appears, as if overnight. Billy goes to check things out, where he comes across a giraffe sticking its head out of the top-floor window. Thereafter, a pelican emerges to share the story of their window cleaning bus ...more

Jun 08, 2020
¸¸.•*¨*•♫ Mrs. Buttercup •*¨*•♫♪
rated it
liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
owned

A short, cute story about a kind boy and a group of animals with magical abilities. One of the rare books by Roald Dahl which are actually fun and cute instead of naughty and crazy. His absurd storytelling still shines though, and Wonka's factory makes an unexpected apparition. Cute! :) ...more

Sent to Andrea Messent at Darren and Associates:
Dear Darren & Associates,
It is with some regret that I sit down to write this correspondence. I understand your reluctance to read voluminous missives so I will keep this missive as unchunky as my e-pen allows.
On Sep 4th 2010 I sent to your agency, via recorded delivery, my novel When Bees Attack. I sent this following a verbal agreement between myself and your agent Cariller Cray when I met her at a catered affair for Bernard Share’s eightieth bir ...more
Dear Darren & Associates,
It is with some regret that I sit down to write this correspondence. I understand your reluctance to read voluminous missives so I will keep this missive as unchunky as my e-pen allows.
On Sep 4th 2010 I sent to your agency, via recorded delivery, my novel When Bees Attack. I sent this following a verbal agreement between myself and your agent Cariller Cray when I met her at a catered affair for Bernard Share’s eightieth bir ...more

I like to start the year with some fluffy books where nothing can go wrong. Roald Dahl created such "safe spaces" for us and despite some suspenseful moments almost all of them have, we always get a happy ending.
In this book, we meeting the following characters:

Billy lives in a street near an abandoned building. The building used to house an old-fashioned sweets shop but is now converted into the home of the titular giraffe, pelican and monkey who open a window cleaning business.
Soon afterwards, ...more
In this book, we meeting the following characters:

Billy lives in a street near an abandoned building. The building used to house an old-fashioned sweets shop but is now converted into the home of the titular giraffe, pelican and monkey who open a window cleaning business.
Soon afterwards, ...more

Quite a cute story.
Billy discovers that someone bought the old candy store...and that someone happens to be a giraffe, a pelican and a monkey.
They've opened a window cleaning company, using the monkey's hands to wash, the pelican's beak as a bucket and the giraffe as a ladder. Quite a clever set up!
As you can imagine, this story is full of whimsy and delightful coincidences as they meet the Duke, catch a robber and find a home.
Audiobook Comments
Read by Hugh Laurie - and he rocked this audio. It ...more
Billy discovers that someone bought the old candy store...and that someone happens to be a giraffe, a pelican and a monkey.
They've opened a window cleaning company, using the monkey's hands to wash, the pelican's beak as a bucket and the giraffe as a ladder. Quite a clever set up!
As you can imagine, this story is full of whimsy and delightful coincidences as they meet the Duke, catch a robber and find a home.
Audiobook Comments
Read by Hugh Laurie - and he rocked this audio. It ...more

Friendship is an amazing thing to share! The duke was a bit crazy, but the great kind of crazy :D
And the closing poem, or song earned the book its forth star!
"We have tears in our eyes
As we wave our good byes
We so love being with you, we three
So do please now and then
Come and see us again
The giraffe and the pelly and me
All you do is to look
At a page in this book
Because that's where we always will be
No book never ends
When it's full of your friends
The giraffe and the pelly and me" ...more
And the closing poem, or song earned the book its forth star!
"We have tears in our eyes
As we wave our good byes
We so love being with you, we three
So do please now and then
Come and see us again
The giraffe and the pelly and me
All you do is to look
At a page in this book
Because that's where we always will be
No book never ends
When it's full of your friends
The giraffe and the pelly and me" ...more

I really liked this story! The friendships are great and the duke is a weird eccentric old guy, which I love! Eccentric old people are the best!
I also loved the closing poem:
We have tears in our eyes,
As we wave our goodbyes,
We so loved being with you, we three.
So do please now and then
Come and see us again,
The giraffe and the Pelly and me.
All you do is to look
At a page in this book
Because that's where we always will be.
No book ever ends
When it's full of your friends
The giraffe and the Pelly a ...more
I also loved the closing poem:
We have tears in our eyes,
As we wave our goodbyes,
We so loved being with you, we three.
So do please now and then
Come and see us again,
The giraffe and the Pelly and me.
All you do is to look
At a page in this book
Because that's where we always will be.
No book ever ends
When it's full of your friends
The giraffe and the Pelly a ...more


I liked the subtle plot twists in the end. I had vague memory of my mom reading this to me, but i wasn't paying attention to the story back then. It all came together after this one scene where the pelican explains about his beak sliding in his head. Yeah, that sort of gave it away. This time I read it on my own and it surprisingly wasn't boring at all. ( Boo! At the 5 year old me who wasn't invested in the story). All in all it did a great job at grabbing my interest now as an adult. ...more

May 12, 2020
Tatevik
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Tatevik by:
Ilse
Nobody reads bedtime stories this good other than Hugh Laurie. Ok, maybe also Stephen Fry.

#46 of 2020

This was an extremely cute book. I read this book as an adult, for me, by me, with no one else. As an adult I forget how fun it is to read children's chapter books. It brings back memories of when I was in elementary school. Roald Dahl was my favorite author and Matilda was my favorite book of all time in elementary school. My new goal is read every book by him!
I suggest this book to anyone that wants a quick, fun read :) ...more
I suggest this book to anyone that wants a quick, fun read :) ...more

❧ audiobook review
This is one Roald Dahl book I'd actually never heard of! I'm surprised, because it was written in 1985, but somehow it slipped past me until today. I didn't love it as much as Matilda, The Witches and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but it's very cute in its own right! The audio book is narrated by Hugh Laurie, which I thoroughly recommend. He sings!

Also, the list of sweets at the end is an absolute delight! You can tell Dahl loves sweets, haha. Apparently he published a ...more
This is one Roald Dahl book I'd actually never heard of! I'm surprised, because it was written in 1985, but somehow it slipped past me until today. I didn't love it as much as Matilda, The Witches and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but it's very cute in its own right! The audio book is narrated by Hugh Laurie, which I thoroughly recommend. He sings!

Also, the list of sweets at the end is an absolute delight! You can tell Dahl loves sweets, haha. Apparently he published a ...more

I'd never heard of this one before I found it in a stoop giveaway. Nice readaloud with lots of illustrations in my edition.
...more

3.5 - 4 stars

TGATPAE is probably Dahl’s most sweetest and simplest story I’ve read so far in his catalogue. It centers on a little boy who dreams of owning his own candy store 🍭 🍬. When he finds an abandoned building, he meets an eccentric group of window washers consisting of a giraffe, pelican and a monkey giraffe 🦒 🐦 🐒 and together help the boy’s dream come true. It’s not complex or peculiar like many of Dahl’s other children’s books, but has a nice gentler tone and story that no fan of Roald Dahl should
...more

Three entrepreneurial critters team up with a sweet-tooth little boy to wash windows and happen to bust a criminal in the middle of a burglary. Typical Roald Dahl daftery.
The story itself was 3 stars, but Hugh Laurie's narration made it extra fun. There's something about his voice that is perfectly suited to Dahl's nonsense candy names. ...more
The story itself was 3 stars, but Hugh Laurie's narration made it extra fun. There's something about his voice that is perfectly suited to Dahl's nonsense candy names. ...more

A wonderful story, it reminded me of a movie which called "Pai" which i watched once.
it was the first experiance with Roald Dahl but definatly it won't be the last
i enjoyed it :) ...more
it was the first experiance with Roald Dahl but definatly it won't be the last
i enjoyed it :) ...more

"No book never ends
When it's full of your friends" ...more
When it's full of your friends" ...more

Roald Dahl’s ‘The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me’ tells the story of a young boy named Billy and his dream to transform an old empty wooden house into a sweet shop that would consist of Sherbet Suckers, Caramel Fudge, Russian Toffee, Sugar Snorters and Butter Gumballs along with many many more different sweets. One day Billy, visited the shop and out of the corner of his eye Billy noticed one of the windows open and out of it appeared a Giraffe. Then a second and third window opened and out them a
...more

Apr 12, 2009
PurplyCookie
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
childrens-books
Have you read this delightful story of the Ladderless Window-Cleaning Company? If you haven't, then better snap up this book; so for only a few precious minutes, you can pretend that everything in the world isn't as awful as it seems.
When Billy joins the Ladderless Window-Cleaning Company, he gets a lot more than a new job. First he makes three new friends, then it's time to get to work cleaning all 677 windows of the Duke of Hampshire's house. The Duke is not only the most wealthy man in the co ...more
When Billy joins the Ladderless Window-Cleaning Company, he gets a lot more than a new job. First he makes three new friends, then it's time to get to work cleaning all 677 windows of the Duke of Hampshire's house. The Duke is not only the most wealthy man in the co ...more

'The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me' by Roald Dahl tells the tale of a young boy named Billy who, whilst staring at a derelict sweet shop dreams that one day he will own his own which would be 'loaded from top to bottom with Sherbet Suckers, and Caramel Fudge and Russian Toffee and Sugar Snorters and Butter Gumballs and thousands and thousands of other glorious things like that'.
One day he finds that the derelict shop has some new residents by the way of a giraffe, pelican and monkey who just so ...more
One day he finds that the derelict shop has some new residents by the way of a giraffe, pelican and monkey who just so ...more

Billy, a young boy, comes across an old sweet shop which he dreams about renovating. Peering out the windows he finds a giraffe, pelican and monkey. Who are they, Billy wonders?! They are the world’s best window cleaning company of course! After working for the richest man in England, all of the members of the window cleaning company are rewarded individually; Billy’s reward is the purchase of the sweet shop he so long desired.
Throughout their short adventure the characters sing short, catchy so ...more
Throughout their short adventure the characters sing short, catchy so ...more

Another short, well illustrated book by Roald Dahl. It's about a kid who after seeing an old closed sweet shop in his neighborhood gets the desire to own it and convert it into the most beautiful sweet shop of his own. One day when he finds out that the house has been bought by a giraffe, a pelican and a monkey , he meets them and they become instant friends. The story goes about how they get to meet a duke and how the boy finally fulfills him dream.
The book is written as if it were a poem. The ...more
The book is written as if it were a poem. The ...more
topics | posts | views | last activity | |
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2019 Roe Reading ...: The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me | 2 | 2 | Oct 11, 2020 01:28PM | |
UEL Primary PGCE ...: Zelie's Book Review 2 | 1 | 3 | Aug 29, 2014 05:18AM |
Roald Dahl was a British novelist, short story writer and screenwriter of Norwegian descent, who rose to prominence in the 1940's with works for both children and adults, and became one of the world's bestselling authors.
Dahl's first published work, inspired by a meeting with C. S. Forester, was Shot Down Over Libya. Today the story is published as A Piece of Cake. The story, about his wartime adv ...more
Dahl's first published work, inspired by a meeting with C. S. Forester, was Shot Down Over Libya. Today the story is published as A Piece of Cake. The story, about his wartime adv ...more
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“All you do is to look / At a page in this book / Because that's where we always will be. / No book ever ends / When it's full of your friends / The Giraffe and the Pelly and me.”
—
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“the world is a scary place for such a small child”
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More quotes…