When mine was little, we liked “Elmer” by David McKee:
Elmer’s a multicolored elephant in a drab grey elephant world. He’s the happy joker who brings the mood of the herd up, but clearly wonders what it’s like to be “normal”, and seems to wonder if the other elephants are laughing with him, or at him, so he dyes himself drab grey, and blends back into the herd. Noticing that the herd isn’t what it usually is he startles them all, and the herd enjoys the joke, wishing that Elmer were there with them as he would have enjoyed the joke. A rain cloud washes him back to his normal patchwork, and the elephants love his joke even more because he tricked them on top of the startle, and the elephants start an “Elmer Day” where everyone paints themselves in outlandish patterns.
