【绘本】每个个体的存在都该得到尊重——被译成二十多种语言的经典绘本：Elmer

由英国知名图画书作家大卫 麦基，创作的《大象艾玛》系列绘本之Elmer，通过幽默有趣的故事和图画，让小朋友在快乐的情境中学习接纳自己和他人的独特之处。迄今已被转译为二十多国语言，深受世界各地儿童喜爱。

Elmerby David Mckee

There was once a herd of elephants.Elephants young, elephants old, elephants tall and short, fat and thin.All were different but all were happy and almost all were the same color.从前有一群大象，有年轻的，年老的，有高的，矮的，有胖的，有瘦的......他们各不相同,但却一样地快乐，并且.....有着差不多一样的肤色。

All except Elmer. Elmer was not elephant color. He was patchwork .Elmer was yellow and orange and red and pink and purple and blue and green and black and white.唯有Elmer的肤色不是灰色的，他是混合色，是黄色、橙色、红色、粉色、紫色、蓝色、绿色、黑色和白色混合在一起的！

It was Elmer who kept the other elephants happy. Their games and jokes were always his idea. If an elephant was laughing, the cause was usually Elmer.Elmer是大家的开心果，他总能想到好玩的游戏和玩笑。如果有大象在开心地笑，通常是因为Elmer。【问问孩子，大象们为什么喜欢Elmer？ 是因为他的肤色很特别？还是因为他总是有办法逗大家开心。】

But Elmer himself wasn’t happy. “Whoever heard of a patchwork elephant?”he thought, “No wonder they laugh at me!” One morning, just as the others were waking up, Elmer slipped away.Elmer却不开心，他并不欣赏自己彩色的身体，因而大象们善意的笑，开心的笑，在他看来是在嘲笑他。于是，有一天早晨，趁着其他大象不注意，他偷偷地溜走了。

As he walked through the jungle, Elmer met other animals.“Good morning, Elmer，” they said.当他穿过丛林时，遇到了很多动物，他们跟他打招呼：“早上好，Elmer.”

After a long walk Elmer found what he was looking for—a large bush covered with elephant-colored berries. Elmer caught hold of the bush and shook it until the berries fell on the ground.Elmer 走了很久，终于找到了他正在寻找的东西——一大丛长满灰色浆果的植物。他用长鼻子勾住他，摇啊摇，把植物上的浆果都摇到了地上。

Then Elmer lay down and rolled over on the berries, this way and that.He picked up bunches of berries and rubbed himself all over until he was covered with berry juice. When he dad finished, there wasn’t a sign og any yellow, or orange, or red, or pink, or purple, or blue, or green, or black, or white. Elmer looked like any other elephant.Elmer 躺在浆果上打滚，用长鼻子拾起它们把自己浑身上下涂了个遍。最后，浆果的灰色盖住了Elmer身上的所有颜色。他终于拥有了其他大象都有的“灰色”皮肤，他看起来和他们并无二致了。

On his way back through the jungle，Elmer passed the other animals.“Good morning, elephant,” they said.他愉快地穿过丛林往回走时，又遇到了丛林中的动物。动物们跟他打招呼：“早上好，大象.”

When Elmer rejoined the herd, none of the other elephants noticed him.Elmer回到了象群，但没有任何大象认出了他。

As he stood there, Elmer felt that something was wrong. But what?He looked around:same old jungle, same old blue sky, same old rain cloud, same old elephants.但Elmer却发觉有些不对劲。（这时我们可以结合图片，和孩子讨论一下）

The other elephants were standing absolutely still, silent and serious. Elmer had never seen them so serious before.It made him want to laugh. Finally he could bear it no longer. He lifted his trunk and, at the top of his voice, shouted-哦，Elmer觉察到的异样，并不是天气，也不是丛林，也不是天上的乌云。而是伙伴们的情绪。象群死气沉沉的，伙伴们一个个安静地僵硬地站着，Elmer从没看到他们这么严肃过。

BOOO!他觉得好笑。他终于忍不住。举起长长的象鼻，用最大的力气，打了一个超级响的喷嚏：“Booo！”

The other elephants jumped in surprise. Elmer was helpless with laughter. Then the others began to laugh.“Too bad Elmer isn’t here to share the fun,” they said, langhing harder and harder.所有的大象都被吓了一跳。Elmer却再也忍不住了，他大笑起来。其他大象也跟着笑了起来。他们笑得越来越大声，只是，它们觉得遗憾，Elmer没能一起分享这么快乐的时刻。

And then the rain cloud burst. When the rain fell on Elmer, his patchwork started to show again.“Oh, Elmer,” gasped an old elephant as Elmer was washed back to normal. “You’ve played some good jokes, but this has been the biggest laugh of all. What would we do without you ?”“We must celebrate this day every year,” said another.“The day of Elmer’s best joke.”“All of us elephants will decorate ourselves in his honor,” said a third.“And Elmer will decorate himself elephant color.”这时，天开始下雨了，雨水淋到Elmer身上，他身上的灰色被一点点洗掉，他的彩色皮肤又显现出来了。大象们又惊又喜，他们都觉得，这是Elmer开过的，最最棒的玩笑！是Elmer给他们的生活带来了这么多欢乐。大象Elmer，是他们的骄傲。他们决定将这一天作为纪念日，以后每年的这一天，他们都会把自己染成彩色来庆祝，而Elmer，则可以把自己染成普通大象的颜色。

And one day each year the elephants color themselves yellow, or orange, or red, or pink, or purple or blue, or green, or black, or white and have a parade. If you happen to see an elephant in the Elmer’s Day parade who is ordinary elephant color, you will know it must be Elmer.
以后啊，每年的这一天，大象们都会把自己染成各种各样的颜色，欢快地游行。放眼望去，你会看到各种各样的色彩，像彩虹一般!而假如你在游行的队伍中看到了一头大象，他是普通的灰色，那一定是Elmer哦！

小编说

这是一本关于自我认知的绘本。

Elmer 在某一方面和大家不一样，他虽然和其他大象一样有长鼻子，大耳朵，庞大的身躯，但却有着很特别的肤色。Elmer并不喜欢自己的不同，他甚至将同伴的友好和欣赏视为嘲笑，逃离象群并企图改变自己。幸运的是，Elmer 拥有一群了不起的伙伴，他们欣赏他的独特，一直鼓励他做自己，十分感谢他给他们带来快乐！这也使得Elmer最终接纳了自己的与众不同。

这个绘本故事有趣，插图精美，色调鲜亮，动物形象可爱，颜色的渲染细腻且天马行空，符合幼儿的审美（个人尤其喜欢故事末尾那场“彩色”的雨）。细细品读，我们会发现一些有趣的地方：比如：Elmer两次穿过丛林，动物们的问候有什么不同呢？

再比如：仔细看图，书中竟没有两个完全一样的事物。每一头大象形态、肤色都各不相同，甚至每一株植物都有各自的姿态，就连栖息在树上的鸟儿也都很独特。

作者这么“用心良苦”，或许是想告诉读者，世间万物皆是独一无二的存在，我们每个人都很特别。有时候，我们会有一些非常非常特别以至于看起来和众人很不一样的地方，就像Elmer的彩色皮肤。如果你就是Elmer，不必为了自己的独特而烦恼，努力去给自己和他人创造价值，你会为自己而骄傲。如果你身边就有Elmer，不要去嘲笑他，鼓励他做自己，帮助他找到自己的美。费尽心力想让自己变得和大家一样，反而失去了原本的那份美丽和快乐。这不由让我想起Pete the Cat 里的一句话 If you want to be cool, just be yourself.

每个孩子都有自己不同于他人的地方，有外貌身体上的差异，有思想喜好，认知能力上的差异。有的孩子有优秀的语言能力，有的动手能力很强，有的可能不擅长说和动手，小脑瓜却很灵活......作为家长，我们需要明白这些，帮助他们接纳并尊重自己，以及他人的独特。