The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me

"It’s about a little boy named Billy who has the bright idea that one day he will own a sweet shop supermarket, filled with long corridors and ladders to reach all the glorious sweets and chocolate. This is his idea of paradise. One day he is standing by this shop called ‘The Grubber’ on the high street, which is actually based on the high street where we are here in Great Missenden. Suddenly, loads of stuff like an enormous bathtub and an empty canary cage flies out the window and he meets the owners of this random shop, who are a giraffe, a pelican and a monkey. So, the title The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me is from the perspective of the monkey—the “me” isn’t the little boy, but the monkey. And together they start this window washing business. The Pelican has this amazing ability to retract his bill, so it turns into a big bucket, and the giraffe can extend her neck so she can reach the higher-up windows and the monkey can clamber up the neck of the giraffe to clean the windows. They clean the Duke of Hampshire’s Hall, clean all his windows and along the way manage to foil a burglary. Then the Duke of Hampshire is so pleased that he gives Billy money to turn the dilapidated old Grubber into the sweet shop of Billy’s dreams. So they all get what they want and Billy gets his sweet shop in the end. Only the burglary, really. This is a book designed for much younger children. The Duchess gets her necklace stolen, but they manage to foil that plan. But there are little bits, like the Duke saying to Billy that he will have the pelican for breakfast, which are not particularly lovely."