picture book Archives - Page 2 of 769

The GiRaft: A Real-Life Giraffe Rescue
by Laurel Neme (Author) and Elisa Paganelli (Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop

Booktalk: Poor Asiwa—time is running out! She and seven other rare Nubian giraffes have peacefully lived on a peninsula that juts out into Lake Baringo in Kenya. But now relentless rain and rising floodwaters have turned their home into an island. Food is running out. It’s especially desperate for Asiwa as the water has stranded her away from the other giraffes. She is alone and frightened. If the giraffes aren’t rescued, this endangered breed will be one step closer to extinction.

But how does one transport an almost 20-foot-tall wild animal? With a GiRaft, of course! An alliance of wildlife rangers, conservancies, and local community members work to create a flotational craft specifically to ferry the giraffes to a new home. Will Asiwa and her herd get on board?

Snippet:

The author, Laurel Neme, is one of my former students.
Copyright © 2026 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved. (*bookstore affiliate)

Raise the Roof!
by Anastasia Suen (Author) and Elwood H. Smith (Illustrator)

Booktalk: My brothers built homes and my husband is a architect, so home construction has been a part of my life for years. I used our old construction photographs to help me write this 97-word picture book poem.

When the book was being illustrated, the editor asked me if the illustrator could add a dog to the book. I said yes. (We had a dog, so it didn’t seem like an unusual request.) Imagine my surprise when the page proofs for Raise the Roof came and the dog was a builder, too!

A year after the book was published, it came out again (with another publisher) as a PreK literacy program book, making this former Kindergarten ESL teacher very happy!