The Greedy Zebra

Everybody has a favourite childhood book, or at least a select few that they remember with fond nostalgia. Mine include 'Peepo!', "The Tiger Who Came To Tea' and 'The Hungry Caterpillar' to name just a few, but another of my very favourites is 'The Greedy Zebra', possibly a lesser known tale but equally as good. Looking back on it now from a design perspective, I wonder if I really had been interested on the effect that design has from such a young age!

The book tells the story of how all animals got their coats, and explains that one day a whole load of different fabric appears in a cave in the jungle. The pictures in the book show that all the jungle animals used to be a white-ish grey colour, and whoever was fastest to the cave determined who would get the nicest coat. The zebra in the story was very greedy, and kept stopping to eat along his way to the cave. Ultimately, he was the last animal to reach the cave, where there was only one tiny piece of black fabric left. The zebra pulls it on nevertheless but because he is so fat from all the eating, the fabric splits in a zig zag fashion, and this is how the greedy zebra got his stripes!

My favourite thing about childhood stories like this is the idea behind the story; in this book the original interpretation by the author for how animals are coloured and patterned in the way that they are. The illustrations are great, too, and really capture the overall tone of the story!