I Am Different!
This is Dalla. Dalla is a very different kind of penguin.
Why? Because he doesn’t swim!
Is it because he can’t swim, you might ask?
Or, is it because he’s afraid of the water?
It’s kind of a secret,
But Dalla does know how to swim!
Dalla and his friends learned how to swim.
But the more Dalla learned about swimming, the more curious he got.
“Why do we even have to learn about the sea anemone stroke?”
Wilmer, who was good at swimming, answered,
“Because it’s cool. I love everything about swimming!”
★The Spinning Stroke★
1 Hold your flippers close to your sides
2 Roll your body into a ball
3 Spin around and around
★Tornado Stroke★
1 Stretch your flippers high over your head
2 Quickly turn your body around like a tornado
3 Keep your feet close to your body!
★Sea Anemone Stroke★
1 Be careful to keep both flippers the same!
2 Wiggle your flippers back and forth as if you’re dancing
3 Turn them to the side and keep moving
Coo-Coo was not a good swimmer, but he tried hard.
Polly, who couldn’t swim well either, said,
“Well… it’s something we just have to do, isn’t it?”
“Teacher, why do we have to learn the sea anemone stroke?”
“Dalla, why do you have to be like this?
Everyone else is working hard.
Quick, go get back in line.”
Dalla was frustrated.
As soon as he got home, he went to talk to his father.
“I want to stop learning how to swim!”
“What? Why, Dalla?”
“Stuff like the sea anemone stroke is too hard.
Plus, it’s not any fun and I already know how to swim!”
“Alright.
Tell you what, why don’t you try to do things your way?”
“Wow! Really?”
“Of course.
What do you want to do, Dalla?”
Dalla thought carefully.
‘What’s something that’s fun to do?’
While his friends were learning how to swim, Dalla did other things.
He jumped up and down,
Caught fish,
Looked at holes in the ice,
And built igloos.
Then by chance, quite by accident, Dalla slipped…
“Wow! This is so fun!”
From that day on, Dalla went sliding every day.
Wilmer saw Dalla and said,
“What’s so fun about that?
He looks ridiculous!”
But Polly looked at him and said,
“Dalla looks like he’s having fun.
I’m jealous.”
Dalla got better and better at sliding.
He even tried to slide in cool new ways.
Zoom! He slid fast!
Flip! He changed directions.
Swish! He went through tunnels.
Zip! He slid over hills.
Swoosh! He slid sitting down.
“Yay! This is so much fun!”
One day, Dalla was sliding on the ice.
WHAM! Suddenly, he ran into something.
It was the belly of a seal.
“Look here, little one. You need to hurry and get out of the way.
The sliding competition is about to start.”
“Sliding competition?
I want to join the competition too!”
“You?
Okay, you can join us too!”
“I came all the way here from an ocean far, far away.
I’m going to win the gold medal.”
“Wait until you see what I can do.”
“I’ve been preparing for this competition for more than 5 years.
I’ll win gold for sure!”
“Little one, you can’t tell me you’re really going to enter the competition?”
“Be careful not to get hurt.”
The seals nervously waited for the starting signal.
Everyone else wanted to win first place,
But Dalla only wanted to have fun.
“I am going to have so much fun sliding with all these seals!"
Ready, set, go!
The seals started off competitively.
But soon…
“Hey, don’t pull on my whiskers!”
“Get out of my way!”
“Eat my dust!”
“Ouch! Who bit my flipper?”
Dalla joyfully zoomed down the slide.
Meanwhile…
“Ah! Look!”
Wow! Dalla won the first place!
Dalla’s dad and friends heard the news and came over to congratulate him.
“Hey Dalla, great job!”
“You’re the best, Dalla!”
“Should I try something different too?”
“I guess you don’t have to swim after all!”
Time passed.
Wilmer became a professional swimmer.
Coo-Coo became a chef.
And Polly became a police officer.
Dalla became a sliding coach and taught many sliding players.
Then one day,
Dalla was sliding on the ice and fell SPLASH right into the ocean!
Dalla was a little surprised because he hadn’t been in the ocean for a very long time.
“Wow, the ocean is so cool!
I want to see more.”
“Maybe I should try swimming?”