Book Giveaway: GIRAFFE IS TOO TALL FOR THIS BOOK by DK Ryland

DK Ryland’s debut picture book GIRAFFE IS TOO TALL FOR THIS BOOK which she wrote and illustrated is coming out on October 17th with Page Street Kids. They have agreed to send a copy to the one lucky winner in the US.

Just leave a comment. Reblog, tweet, or talk about it on Facebook with a link and you will get additional chances to win. Let me know other things you did to share the good news, so I can put the right amount of tickets in my basket for you. Sharing on Facebook, Twitter, or reblogging really helps spread the word about a new book. So, thanks for helping DK.

If you have signed up to follow my blog and it is delivered to you every day, please let me know when you leave a comment and I will give you an extra ticket. If you want to make sure you don’t miss seeing that you won, please click the “Notify Me of Follow-Up Comments by Email” box. I will leave a comment in reply if you win the book. Thanks!

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

Furry, feathered, and scaled―all our animal friends are ready to read. But there’s just one big problem: Giraffe is too tall!

(Or, rather, the book is too short.)

Come along for a special storytime featuring six friendly animals and one puzzling predicament. Bright speech bubbles encourage readers to take an active role and find creative solutions as this wild squad works together to save storytime.

Using their bodies and minds, the animals persevere through a hilarious adventure, revealing that sometimes it’s not ourselves we need to change―it’s the book!

BOOK JOURNEY:

Many times picture book ideas will come to me as a funny image. One day, an image of a giraffe with an extremely long neck, that continued off the page, popped into my head. And there it stayed for quite a while. I knew I wanted to make it a picture book, but it needed time to become a full-fledged story. During that time, I was having a lot of conversations with my kids about problem-solving, so that theme started to creep into this story and give it some shape. Little by little, my subconscious got to work until I was finally ready to sit down and write it.

It’s interesting to me that after writing a story, it becomes evident how my own experiences and values are inserted throughout even if I didn’t consciously try to do so. I have a degree in Film and filmed wildlife in South Africa where I was obsessed with how majestic giraffes are. It makes perfect sense now that a giraffe would be the star of my debut picture book. I was also a collegiate and professional softball player, as well as a coach, so teamwork and problem-solving have been themes I have continuously explored throughout my life.

There are themes in GIRAFFE IS TOO TALL FOR THIS BOOK that I hope kids and caregivers take away – self love and acceptance, teamwork and creative problem solving, but most of all I wanted to make a book that was really fun to read. The story encourages the reader to engage with the book in an unconventional way and I think kids will have a blast interacting with these six animal friends!

DK’S BIO:

DK Ryland is an author/illustrator who loves creating funny and subversive picture books. Before she started writing and illustrating, she filmed wildlife in Africa, was a collegiate All-American and professional athlete, and was a teacher and coach. DK received a PBChat mentorship with Cori Doerrfeld in 2019 and was a PBParty finalist in 2020.

Her debut picture book, GIRAFFE IS TOO TALL FOR THIS BOOK, comes out October 17, 2023 (Page Street Kids). Her second picture book, HAVE YOU SEEN MY ACORN?, comes out in Fall 2024 (Flamingo Books), and her third picture book, THE DANGEROUS ALPHABET BOOK, comes out in Fall 2025 (Astra Young Readers).

DK lives in San Diego with her super awesome husband, 2 brilliant kids, and far too many pets. Just kidding – there’s no such thing as too many pets. She is represented by Kaitlyn Sanchez at Bradford Literary.

DK, thank you for sharing your book and journey with us. This book is so much fun. I love how you introduce the animal characters with them talking to the reader.

ELEPHANT says: Oh, PEANUTS! Where are we?

LEPARD says: Considering there’s a reader looking at us, I’d say we are in a book.

SNAKE says: Oh, yeah! Hi, reader!

FLAMINGO says: WeIl . . . not all of ussss are in a book

GIRAFFE says: WAH! I’m too tall for this book!

On the next page, we see Giraffe’s body with no head and drops of water coming down from where his head and eyes would be, falling onto Little Mouse.

Little MOUSE says: Why don’t you bring your neck down here? 

This is such a cute and smart start to the story. It totally grabbed my attention. Then the chaos and funny banter between the animals starts. Kids will love it. I can hear them laughing now. The rest of the book is just as funny and cute as the beginning when the animals start asking the reader to turn the book in different directions to help them fit inside. By the end, they think they’ve got it right until Elephant says: Except when I stand up. I think I might be too wide for this book and Flemingo says: You aren’t too wide. This book is too narrow! and Lepard says: Oh no, here we go again . . . .

DK, I totally enjoyed your illustrations and your fun characters, too. What a hilarious book. Good Luck with the book.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy