Diversity- Not Quite Narwhal

 

Not Quite Narwhal by Jessie Sima

This sweet children's book is about a narwhal, well, not so quite narwhal, who is discovering that he is a little different from his fellow narwhals.  

Kelp was not the best swimmer    .....               

His tusk was not as long as the others...

                 

He liked different food.....

He knew he was different very early on.  One day, he saw a creature that looked just like him on land.  He had never been on land before.  He decided to swim as fast as he could towards land; however, he was not a very fast swimmer.  He was a little nervous about walking for the first time, but he thought the land creatures made it look easy.  Once he got on land, he found many land narwhals! He was so excited, but he soon discovered that the land narwhals were actually..... UNICORNS... and so was HE! They taught him how to gallop and that the thing on top of his head was called a horn.....and don't forget unicorn delicacies.. yummy!!!  He was having the best time and didn't want to leave.  Kelp suddenly remembered all of his friends under the sea, and he missed them terribly.  Would the narwhals still love him and like him, even though he was a unicorn??!! Once he got back home, he was surprised that all of his narwhal friends missed him and that his new identity was not such a secret after all.  In fact, they always knew that he was a unicorn.  Kelp was so relieved that he was still accepted, even though he was different.  Although he was happy to be home in the ocean, he missed his land narwhal friends...oh wait, they are actually called unicorns.  He missed his unicorn friends!  How would he pick between his land friends and under the sea friends.  He found a way that he didn't have to choose.  He could have the best of both worlds!!

Check out this link to see how Kelp figured out to have the best of both worlds

https://youtu.be/IBOWaQSuGl4

A great activity to use along with this book is a lesson about comparing and contrasting.  Use a venn diagram to compare features about a narwhal and unicorn.  How are they different and how are they alike?