No, I’m a … Flamingo!
Catharine Robertson and Ana Gomez
Happy Yak

Like many three and a half year olds, the little girl narrator of this story only ever wants to wear one particular item of clothing. In this case a pink flamingo onesie. I had a relation who at the same age insisted on wearing what she called her fruit shorts wherever she went.

Our narrator’s patient Dad suggests that as it’s very hot, she should put on her elephant T-shirt. You can guess the response. A panda themed offering is similarly rejected. So, he tries clothes depicting a different sort of bird – a penguin, or a puffin perhaps?

“NO, I’M A FLAMINGO! I only wear pink.” comes the reply.

Now this Dad knows something about flamingos that his little daughter does not. At her age, flamingos are grey and only turn pink when they’re older. Time to find that old grey T-shirt.

Suddenly the little girl is a flamingo no longer so Dad quickly produces some jazzy shorts. Dad might know more about flamingos but our narrator is a creative thinker … Will they ever leave the house and if so, what will that little girl be wearing?

The combination of Catherine Robertson’s text that takes the form of the dialogue between father and daughter and Ana Gomez’s disarmingly charming scenes will ring true with many adult sharers whereas young listeners will find the little girl’s choice entirely logical and delight in the final twist to the tale.