Tall Blondes: A Book about Giraffes - Hardcover

Sherr, Lynn

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0836227697 ISBN 13: 9780836227697

Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing, 1997

Synopsis

Hundreds of books have been written about dogs and cats. Dozens about lions and tigers and bears. But how many non-scholarly books have been written about giraffes-one of nature's most intriguing and unique animals? None. Until now.

You know Lynn Sherr as a veteran journalist and as a leading correspondent for the ABC news magazine 20/20, but you probably didn't know that she has been an avid giraffophile since a visit to the African wilderness nearly twenty-five years ago.

The days of the giraffe being overlooked and under-appreciated are over with the publishing of Tall Blondes,a one-of-a-kind book about a one-of-a-kind animal. The giraffe's unusually long neck and legs make it one of the most recognizable creatures on our planet. But it also possesses a wide range of other fascinating and endearing traits and features. And while most giraffes are blondes, they come in beautiful arrays of red, brown, and even white.

Sherr traces the cultural history of the giraffe, from it's first appearance in Europe in 46 B.C. (thanks to Julius Caesar) through medieval bestiaries and up to the modern giraffe star of a TV movie. The book is not just about giraffes in the wild: it's about how they have impacted on humans (and visa versa), stirring the imaginations of artists, writers and thinkers. Taking a whimsical approach to her very serious subject, Sherr has filled it with little-known tidbits, awe-inspiring photographs and drawings, and intriguing tales about the world's tallest land animal.

Read it, and you'll not only learn about why Sherr (a tall blond herself) has fallen head over heals for this gawky but graceful animal-you'll fall in love too.

About this title

About the Author:

Lynn Sherr is an award-winning broadcaster and author who spent more than thirty years at ABC News. She reported on the NASA space shuttle program from its inception in 1981 through the Challenger explosion in 1986. Sherr’s numerous awards include an Emmy, two American Women in Radio and Television Commendation awards, a Gracie Award, and a George Foster Peabody Award. Her books include Swim, Outside the Box, and America the Beautiful, among others.

From Publishers Weekly:

A tall blonde herself, ABC correspondent Sherr became fascinated with giraffes during a 1973 trip to Africa. Subsequent visits fueled her interest and led to this book, a felicitous blend of history, biology and anthropology that starts in prehistoric times and runs to the present. Nearly half of the book consists of giraffe-related quotations from travelers, historians, scientists, hunters and others. We learn that there are nine subspecies of giraffes (they can interbreed); that the giraffe is highly sociable; that its chief predators are lions and hyenas. Sherr describes the giraffe's remarkable physiology and its gentle nature. She tells stories of some famous giraffes, including Daisy Rothschild, a pet raised by a family in Kenya, and the giraffe kept in a Florentine zoo in the late 15th century by Lorenzo de Medici. With so much popular literature devoted to lions, elephants and apes, it's about time someone has written a modern paean to the giraffe--and such a graceful one, too. Color illustrations throughout.

Copyright 1997 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0836227697
• ISBN 13: 9780836227697
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 176