Pink! by Lynne Rickards

The Chicken House, 2009

Gender-conformity concerns – Infant-Preschool

Patrick the penguin is horrified to wake up pink one morning. Boys can’t be pink! He will be teased at school! This is the end of the world!

Patrick’s parents reassure him that it’s okay to be different, and his father pulls out a book of birds of the world to show him photographs of flamingos, half of whom are definitely boys.

But after a few days of misery, Patrick packs his knapsack, and tells his parents he’s going to Africa where he will fit in better with the flamingo flocks. To his dismay, while the flamingos are friendly, he doesn’t fit it there either. He can’t fish like they do, and he can’t fly like they do. And the water is awfully warm for a penguin.

When he returns home, he is welcomed by friends, classmates, and family alike, and gives a presentation in class about everything he learned about flamingos.

Maybe being a pink penguin isn’t the end of the world after all.

This is a great book to use with children about feeling comfortable about their differences, and also to potentially explore gender issues with.

Also available in Spanish: ¡Pink! El pingüino que se volvió rosa.  Trapella Books, 2010.