Nanu, Penguin Chick

This is a beautifully, and at times powerfully, illustrated story of an Emperor Penguin's first year of life. The vastness of Antarctica and the severity of a bitterly cold and hostile environment come through strongly in text and pictures. Five to six year olds will enjoy talking to a sympathetic adult as they listen to the exciting story and savour the pictures. Older children, who could read the text themselves, will have seen harsher realities in nature programmes on television - parenting penguins seized by sea leopards or chicks carried off by marauding skaus. I agree with the judgement here that near misses rather than actual disasters are best narrated for the very young. Perhaps the part of the book referring to 'the cowardly birds' rearing away 'for an easier victim' swings too far towards anthropomorphism. Young children would enjoy possessing this book and would return many times to a thrilling but ultimately reassuring story.