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.