SOLVED. Children's early 1980s reading textbook featuring the play the Unicorn Race and a story about a girl called Ginger and her temporary pet giraffe. [s]

[RabbitMilitia]

Hi! I believe I originally read this book when I was around 6 or 7 years old (1979-1981) in first or second grade in reading class at school. There was a copy of it in our community library and I used to check it out occasionally in later years. It was a reading text book.
I believe the first story in the book was called either "Ginger's Giraffe" or "Ginger and the Giraffe" and was about a girl who temporarily had a pet giraffe (it may have escaped from a zoo and was standing in her yard with its head in her upstairs bedroom window). I'm pretty sure she fed the giraffe a piece of cake at some point (yellow with chocolate frosting). The illustrations for this story were a kind of mixed media with some parts being drawn or formed from paper/yarn, etc. and others being actual photographs (kind of like Charlie and Lola).
The only other part of the book I recall was a play called The Unicorn Race. It featured three unicorns named: Rick, Dick and Nick. I think they were light pink, dark pink and white. I remember forcing my two older brothers to read and "perform" the play with me.
Any help would be very appreciated. Thanks!

[Christine]

This is the textbook series that my first grade class used about the same time. I have no idea if this is the book you're looking for, but I just thought I'd throw this out there as a place to start.

Birds Fly, Bears Don't.
Ginn and Company.

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/sho...

[Rainbowheart]

You may have more luck searching by publisher!

Some other school textbook publishers from that era would be Houghton Mifflin, Harcourt Brace, Silver Burdett, Scott Foresman, and McGraw-Hill.

Do any of those seem familiar?

[RabbitMilitia]

Thanks Christine and Rainbow! After taking your suggestion, Rainbow, I started looking up Houghton Mifflin readers and I'm about 90-95% sure it is Sunburst, but I can't find any references to the actual content of the book to be completely sure. I know that I read that one and also Tapestries at some point. I'm still looking for something that lists the stories in Sunburst and then I will know for sure! :)

[Rainbowheart]

I found it on Archive.org!

https://archive.org/details/sunburst0...

The story is actually called "Ginger's Upstairs Pet."

Ginger and her mother watched the man take the giraffe away. "Your pet will be happy at the zoo," said Ginger's mother. "They have lots of green leaves for him."

"But he'll miss the cake and apples and milk," said Ginger. "And he'll miss me, too."

[Rainbowheart]

But I don't see your unicorn story in Sunburst.

I didn't find it in Tapestry either, so maybe it's from another Houghton Mifflin reader?

https://archive.org/details/fav-amin_...

[Rainbowheart]

If you check William Kirtley Durr, there may also be more readers listed there.

[RabbitMilitia]

Thanks so much (again :) )Rainbow! I would consider this solved :) It is a definite possibility that I could be mixing up more than one reader. I ordered Sunburst, Tapestry and Cloverleaf - all of which I remember reading. For this particular inquiry- I am sure it was Sunburst .

[Rainbowheart]

Awesome, glad to help out!

Let us know also if your unicorn story turns out to be in Cloverleaf.

[RabbitMilitia]

Just updating- received Sunburst, Tapestry and Cloverleaf today. The unicorn play- which happens to be "The King's New Pet" is in Cloverleaf. Thanks again for everyone's help!

[Rainbowheart]

Awesome news! Glad you found both stories. :)