Download - Natalie and Gain's Book
YEEK the EMU
By Natalie Oyencarte
Illustrations by Gain Nam
To Miss Debbie and the teachers and staff at
ACS Doha International School who help us
learn
new things about ourselves everyday.
This book was inspired by the works of author Sheena
Knowles and illustrator Rod Clement.
ACS Doha International School
Doha, Qatar
March 2013
There once were
twelve emus who
lived in the zoo.
But this story isn’t
about just any emu.
It’s about Yeek, the
smallest emu in the
zoo – even smaller
than the meerkat
named Susie Van
Sue.
And Yeek being
the smallest of
all, wished – yes
he wished – that
he could be tall.
Early one day –
before they opened
the zoo – Yeek
thought to himself,
‘I’d like something
new.’
He thought ‘Anything tall
would be worth a try,’ and
just then a poster caught
his eye.
It read,
‘Do you want to be tall?
Do you want to go high?
Do you want to go up, up
into the sky?’
The fine print said the
circus is where ‘a bird quite
small could go high in the
air.’
So the very next day
Yeek was there –
flying and tumbling
through the air.
Suddenly Yeek stumbled
and tumbled and fell.
Who laughed the most,
no one could tell.
Yeek rushed from the
tent and ran back to the
zoo.
As he entered the gates,
he began sobbing, ‘boo
hoo.’
Once in the gate, Yeek
dried his last tear
The sight of giraffe gave
him reason to cheer.
He asked if she would
please lower her head.
But giraffe just kept
munching her breakfast
instead.
To see eye-to-eye Yeek
climbed up on a chair.
He said to giraffe, ‘How’s
the weather up there.
When I stand next to you
I feel so small.
I would give anything if I
could be tall.’
Just then a man walked
into the zoo.
He came to see tall
animals and small
animals too.
When he spied the
giraffe.
He thought, ‘my she’s
tall.’
And when he saw Yeek
he thought, ‘How cute
and how small.’
‘Of all the animals I’ve
seen at the zoo, none of
them are as interesting
as you.’
While Yeek was not tall
he learned on that day
that he was quite special
in his own small way.