The Giraffe in The Kitchen Silvia Ilacqua / Luciana Fernรกndez
Dear Margaret, I hope you are doing well. It’s been a while since I invited you over to have a nice foamy chocolate milk shake, blended to perfection, as you like. I don’t want you to think I’m avoiding you, but something strange has been going on at home. Do you remember that day when you went to get ice from my fridge and noticed a shadow moving in the back? Remember how you slammed the door and ran like crazy? That day I laughed at you? Last week, when I opened the freezer, I felt like something was hiding behind the ice cream. And when I reached back to check ...out of nowhere appeared a little penguin!
The poor little penguin was trembling; whether from fright or cold I don’t know .Who knows? Maybe penguins don’t get cold. In case he was hungry, I opened up a can of sardines, and when I threw a fish he ate it. After that I tried to ignore him, but whenever I open the freezer he is hungry and opens his mouth, so I throw him a sardine. Now he is getting so fat that some days, I try not to open the freezer at all. I am losing so much weight from not eating ice cream, that when you see me at school you will notice how much thinner I am getting.
Also, whenever I was alone in the house, I would take him to the bathtub to do a little exercise so he will not get so chubby. Up until then everything was fine, since I only had the little penguin to take care of and I was happy because my parents would never let me have a dog.
Things started going downhill the day water stopped coming out of the kitchen sink. To try to fix it, I stuck one of my grandma’s knitting needles into the faucet and I heard a voice shout: —Hey! You hit me in the eye! Suddenly, the head of a tiny giraffe came out and said: —Aren’t you going to offer me some of your banana smoothie?” Surprised, I handed it over, and she drank it all in one gulp and said: —Mmm-Mm I want more! So I had to make another one right away, or she would throw a tantrum.
That little giraffe likes to win and always likes to challenge
I know you think I’m lying, that there are no tiny
me to games. She always says:
giraffes and that animals do not talk. I know everyone
—Let’s see who can stick out their tongue the furthest? I bet
at school thinks I’m too inventive, but I assure you this
you cannot stick your tongue inside your nose.
is not a figment of my imagination.
Things got worse when I woke up with a horrible pain in my neck, I turned around and found a blue baby elephant snoring with his heavy trunk draped across my neck. What’s worse is that he took most of my side of the bed and when he turned over, he grabbed all the blankets. When I woke him up to ask him to move a little, he asked me if I could scratch his back. Why doesn’t he scratch himself? After all he has a long trunk. So now I scratch his back until he falls asleep and then I move to the couch.
Well, to make a long story short, other animals began appearing to move into the house. An iguana on the bidet, a lizard on the couch, a 2 inches whale is living in the sink ... And everyone likes my banana smoothies. This is chaos!
I know you do not believe me, I also thought I was going insane and that it was all a figment of my imagination, as grandma Josephine did not seem to see any animals. Then I realized that my grandma was pretending because she wanted to have pets too. I began to suspect that she knew about them the day I saw her throwing sardines into the freezer. I also noticed that she made more banana smoothies than she could possibly drink herself.
You may have noticed that I did not go to school this week. I wasn’t sick; it is just that me and Grandma were very busy opening cans and making banana smoothies non-stop.
We really have to do something before my parents come back from vacation next week!. First, we thought about grabbing a broom and chasing them all out, but when we saw their cute faces we felt sorry for them. Then we had an idea… as they are so small, we’ll put them in a little suitecase with holes and take a taxi to will leave them at aunt Helen’s farm. Granma spoke to her and asked her to turn the settings on the fridge extra cold for the penguin.
Well, now have I explained to you why I haven’t invited you over for a chocolate milk shake lately. I’ll be back at school next week and, once we get everything cleaned up, I want you to come over to drink a delicious banana smoothie that I assure you, you’ll love. Rodrigo
Silvia Ilacqua She has a degree in Educational Sciences from the National University of La Plata and two master’s degrees in Education from the Di Tella Institute and Pennsylvania State University. She wrote her dissertation in the area of reading comprehension. Silvia taught in college, trained teachers and has worked as a consultant for international organizations. She has lived in Argentina, USA, Suriname, Guatemala, Mexico and Brazil.
Luciana FernĂĄndez She studied sculpture at the School of Fine Arts and was creating characters for theater, animation, advertising ... until she discovered books. Luciana does sculpture work in modeling clay. Sometimes she adds objects, collages and paint. She is always looking for new combinations to make the process fun.
Something strange is happening in Rodrigo’s house. He and his grandmother are busy making smoothies to feed their visitors, which are many and they are everywhere. There is a penguin in the freezer, a lizard in the bidet, an elephant in the bed, and even a giraffe in the kitchen! “The giraffe in the kitchen�, rich characters and crazy situations tell of friendship and commitment. Written as a letter, the story introduces young readers to epistolary discourse in a beautiful literary narrative set in the magical world of children.