The Friends of the Claremont Library’s On the Same Page Committee has announced “West with Giraffes” by Lynda Rutledge as its 2025-2026 community read.

The book can be borrowed or purchased for $15 at Claremont Helen Renwick Library, 208 N. Harvard Ave. Lawn signs will soon be available.

“Its basis is the history of the road trip in a special truck that carried 2 giraffes from the East coast to the San Diego Zoo,” wrote On the Same Page Committee Chair Lanore Pearlman in an email. “The author created a cast of characters and scenes that were part fact, part fiction. It is an exciting road trip filled with thrills and spills (literally). It’s filled with comic moments, suspense, and well drawn characters (including the giraffes themselves) who the reader becomes very attached to. The setting is the late 1930s, and the issues of life in the Dust Bowl come alive, as the troupe moves through the middle of the country toward the west.”

More info is at claremontlibrary.org.