Will Giraffe Laugh?

Will Giraffe Laugh?, the fourth in a series of board books, joins Leung’s Will Bear Share?, Will Sheep Sleep? and Will Ladybug Hug?. As Leung did in the earlier three books, he uses the board book’s opening two spreads to establish the central animal character’s current situation and what needs to be done to remedy that state. In this case, Giraffe is grumpy, and the question is: Can one of giraffe’s five presently happy animal friends do something to make him laugh?

A smiling Bear tries juggling, but one of the objects he is tossing into the air lands on Giraffe’s head. Crocodile’s puppetry and Sheep’s balloon animal-making are equally unsuccessful in making Giraffe laugh as is Frog’s attempt at using funny faces. Even Ladybug’s playing a guitar while holding flowers in her mouth fails to evoke even the beginning of a smile from Giraffe. However, when Giraffe looks at the now sad faces of his friends, the question changes: “Will Giraffe cheer up his friends?” And he does so falling into a muddy swamp, an action that causes everyone, including Giraffe, to laugh.

Leung closes the book by asking its readers, “How do you cheer up your friends?” and by providing one more bit of visual humour involving Frog’s long tongue.

As Leung did in the previous three books, he places the brief text on one page with the illustration being located on the facing page. Given the book’s intended young audience, Leung has appropriately kept his illustrations of the characters quite simple and the coloured backgrounds relatively uncluttered. Now just Alligator awaits being featured in a future book.

Will Giraffe Laugh? would make good home purchase, and libraries serving a preschool audience should add it as well.