A short story about a Giraffe, Pelican and Monkey who open up a ladderless window cleaning company, who become friendly with a small boy called Billy. It's full of all the Dahlian humour and whimsy and nonsense, but like always it has a nice serious edge to it. Dahl masters yet another story here by finding new characters and new angles to approach. With another child protagonist (as attentive readers will see, many Dahl tales are narrated by children), the story progresses. The precocious narrator goes off to explore the world, alone. I noticed that there are rarely any parental figures found in Dahl's children's books, which was mentioned in a recent biography I read of the author. Billy is free to frolic and find his way, dashing off to an estate with three random animals, where they eventually clash with an armed robber. How interesting for a children's book to remove the 'adult flavour', at least parents, from the narrative and give complete control to a child seemingly the same age as the target audience. The story flows well and the characters work well together to forge a strong story and decent collection of morals and lessons that are threaded throughout. Billy discovers that someone bought the old candy store...and that someone happens to be a giraffe, a pelican and a monkey.

The story tells of easy friendships, adventure and finding something you're really good at even if it might not be what other people picture you doing - and doing it with gusto. He looked up and saw us. He saw the Giraffe, the Pelly, the Monkey and me all staring down at him from above, but not a muscle moved in his face, not an eyebrow was raised. The chauffeurs of very rich men are never surprised by anything they see. The chauffeur said, ‘His Grace the Duke of Hampshire has instructed me to deliver this envelope to The Ladderless Window-Cleaning Company.’ ‘That’s us!’ cried the Monkey. The Giraffe said, ‘Be so good as to open the envelope and read us the letter.’ The giraffe, pelican and monkey set up a window cleaning company. Can you think of some other animals? What job might they be able to do? Could you write a story about this? Imagine that you could fit inside a pelican’s mouth and fly anywhere in the world. Where would you go to? Why?

Can these unlikely new friends make Billy's wildest dreams come true and take him on an adventure he'll never forget . . .? Read more Details

When Billy reopens The Grubber he chooses to sell sweets made by the Willy Wonka company which features in Dahl's earlier novels Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. The monkey describes walnuts as being ‘scrumptious-galumptious, so flavory-savory, so sweet to eat?’. Can you think of different words / phrases to describe different senses (e.g. taste / touch / smell / hearing / sight). It’s full of salmon,’ the Duke said, ‘and I own it. You can help yourself.’ Before he had finished speaking the Pelican was in the air. The Duke and I watched him as he flew full speed towards the river. We saw him circle over the water, then he dived and disappeared. A few moments later, he was in the air again, and he had a gigantic salmon in his beak.His first children's book was The Gremlins, about mischievous little creatures that were part of RAF folklore. The book was commissioned by Walt Disney for a film that was never made, and published in 1943. Dahl went on to create some of the best-loved children's stories of the 20th century, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda and James and the Giant Peach. These lovely Roald Dahl Colouring Sheets provide you with a great activity to keep your classes calm while they have fun colouring in all their favourite Roald Dahl characters. Billy and the animals are one day asked by the Duke of Hampshire to clean the titular Hampshire house. They accept the Duke's request. As they clean one day, however, they catch a cat burglar trying to steal the Duke's wife’s jewels. Because of this, the Duke invites the animals to live on his estate so that they can be his personal helpers, meaning that they no longer their building. In turn, Billy turns their old building into a candy shop, fulfilling his lifelong dream. Update this section! If your classes enjoyed these Roald Dahl ‘The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me’ worksheets, the fun doesn’t have to stop here! Our in-house teachers have created a wide range of fantastic resources to make Roald Dahl’s books even more engaging for all the children you teach.

The Monkey, in both appearance and diet, bears a strong resemblance to Muggle-Wump, a monkey from two of Dahl's earlier books: The Enormous Crocodile and The Twits. I’m think you may have got our Agency confused as there is no Darren or Cariller Cray working here! even at that level of content creation, you're going to come up with giraffes and pellys sometimes. I really liked this story! The friendships are great and the duke is a weird eccentric old guy, which I love! Eccentric old people are the best! This Roald Dahl Reading Comprehension uses the life of the author to help children understand and analyse a piece of written text. It’s differentiated so children of all abilities can take part.Look at the songs and rhymes in the story. Can you identify the rhyming words? Can you think of other words that rhyme with these? Soon afterwards, they meet the Duke who has been looking for good window cleaners for 40 years so he is delighted when meeting this merry and slightly magical band. Don’t you worry about that, my dear Pelly,’ said the Duke, patting him on the beak. ‘My chauffeur will soon put a patch over it the same way he mends the tyres on the Rolls. Right now we have

In questo piccolo libro la fantasia e l’amicizia si mescolano in maniera perfetta, dando vita a una strampalata impresa di pulizie, capace di fare davvero miracoli. The Pelican spread his huge white wings and flew down on to the road beside me. 'Hop in,' he said, opening his enormous beak . . ." even if you're roald dahl and your mind is capable of coming up with things like "boy in magic chocolate factory gets to live there forever" and "girl who reads a lot is also magic because of that." I like to start the year with some fluffy books where nothing can go wrong. Roald Dahl created such "safe spaces" for us and despite some suspenseful moments almost all of them have, we always get a happy ending.Things go smoothly when they get there until, while cleaning the bedroom windows of Henrietta the Duchess, the Giraffe and the Monkey spot a burglar attempting to steal the Duchess's jewels. The Pelican then flies in and catches the burglar, holding him prisoner in his beak despite the burglar's attempt to shoot his way out with his gun (this makes a hole in the Pelican's beak, but the Duke assures him that the chauffeur can patch it up). Soon the police arrive to arrest the burglar, whom the Chief of Police identifies as the "Cobra", one of the world's most dangerous cat burglars. Although the story is narrated in first-person by Billy, the word "Me" in the title refers to the monkey, who concludes every verse of his signature song with the phrase "the giraffe and the pelly and me".