The Penguin who Wanted to Find Out

Otto, the young emperor penguin, is told: ‘You are the first chick. It’s your job to look after the others.’ But how does Otto, so young himself, know how to do this? Advice comes, of course, from the senior penguins. His father, Claudius, explains that ‘penguins look after each other’, and so Otto insists the young ones stay together in a huddle to keep warm. With the helpful advice of the older and wiser, he takes the cohort through the acquisition of their first feathers and shepherds them to the sea where they learn together how to swim and find food. So young readers are taken into the world of the emperor penguins in Antarctica through an inviting narrative. The lyrical illustrations are of outstanding quality. One shows a huddled mass of birds in a monochrome landscape. In another, closer view we can almost feel the softness of the down and the collective warmth generated. A bit anthropomorphic, you might ask? I think the story format with the use of lively dialogue works well for younger children; not only is it likely to make children care about the birds, it also packs in a huge amount of information in a sympathetic way.