Sunday, January 23, 2022

Penguin Awareness Day




Chinstrap Penguin - Australian Antarctic Program

Penguin Awareness day is January 20th so I am a few days late with this post but really you can and should celebrate the wonders of penguins any day. Every year we share a number of books about penguins with our Grade One classes in the library. Sadly a few of these are now out of print but you may be lucky and find them in a well stocked library. Of course in most books about penguins the main plot line explores the desire of the little penguin hero - he or she wants to fly. Over time I have found these are the penguin picture books I love to share:



Blurb: This year, I was very specific in my letter to Santa Claus. Each year at Christmas, Joe writes a letter to Santa. But they've had a few misunderstandings in the past. Last year, for example, Joe wanted a fire-engine-red racecar with retracting headlights, and he did get one -- but it was only three inches long. So this year Joe is really, really careful. He describes exactly what he wants -- and on Christmas morning, guess what's waiting for him under the tree! Santa has brought him a living, breathing, black-and-white penguin named Osbert. Will anything in Joe's life ever be the same?




In the UK this book is called A Mum in a Million. Blurb: Pip the little penguin chick is worried about starting school. He loves his penguin lessons - from sliding to making waterholes, school for a chick is great fun. It's just the end of the day that's scary. All penguin parents look exactly the same, so how will he spot his mum when it's time to go home? His teacher Miss Peck has devised a plan to help all the little chicks find their mums but she doesn't count on the parents all thinking the same too! Pip needn't worry, Mrs. Penguin is an imaginative mum who is determined not to give up until her clever idea finally ensures that she's the one who stands out from the crowd.
This is quite an obscure little book but it has such a warm message about the love a mother shows her child. The final twist is sure to make you smile (and sigh with happiness). 


Plot from Wikipedia (spoiler alert): Opus is downhearted because, as a penguin, he cannot fly. He orders a machine and assembles it; when it comes time to test the machine by jumping off a three-mile-high cliff, Opus decides to do something less dangerous, and goes home to make anchovy Christmas cookies. He does not give up on his dream though, and makes a Christmas wish to Santa Claus for "wings that will go!" On Christmas Eve, Santa is making his usual delivery when he loses his reindeer and crashes into a lake. Opus jumps in and uses his natural swimming skills to pull Santa out. To thank Opus for his daring rescue, a group of ducks pick him up and take him flying through the air. 
Watch this video (the music track is perfect).  Here is the 20 minute animation. This is partly a Christmas story but I do think you will enjoy it at any time of year. 


Blurb (Amazon): Joe's Mum says he can't have a pet. So he gets creative and makes a pet penguin from his scrap box. His new pet, Pingwing, moves in next to the yoghurts in to the fridge, after all they do like the cold. Mum even likes Joe's new pet. It doesn't eat much, doesn't smell and hardly takes up any space at all, didn't cost a thing and never makes a sound. Joe decides his new pet is lonely and creates some siblings, then they need parents and of course some cousins and aunts and uncles too! Soon he has an entire family of penguins. They're still quiet pets, but Mum has nowhere to put the yoghurts, or the eggs or the butter.



Blurb:  Arthur is a penguin and a worrier. One morning he wakes up feeling excited and worried all at once. Dad has promised him a birthday party and there's an awful lot to think about. Will Ben burst all the balloons? Will Dad perform his terrible magic tricks? Or might it be the very best birthday party a little penguin ever had?
Here is my previous post about this book. There are three books in this series. 


Blurb: One day a penguin arrives on a boy′s door- step. The boy decides the penguin must be lost and tries to return him. But no-one seems to be missing a penguin. So the boy decides to take the penguin home himself, and they set out in his rowing boat on a journey to the South Pole. When they get there, however, the boy discovers that maybe ′home′ wasn′t what the penguin was looking for after all... 

Tacky the Penguin book series by Helen Lester - Tacky in Trouble; Tacky and the Emperor; Three Cheers for Tacky; Tackylocks; Tacky goes to Camp; Tacky and the Winter games; Three Cheers for Tacky; and Tacky and the Haunted Igloo. 


Penguin Facts:

  • Penguins have a waterproof coat of short, overlapping feathers. 
  • They have a well-developed layer of fat for insulation.
  • Penguins feed on small fish and krill which they catch one at a time. 
  • Their main predators are other marine animals, such as leopard seals and killer whales. 
  • Skuas and sheathbills also eat penguin eggs and chicks.
  • Penguins are only found in the Southern Hemisphere. 
  • The greatest concentrations are on Antarctic coasts and sub-Antarctic islands.
  • There are 18 species of penguins, 5 of which live in Antarctica. 
  • Another 4 species live on sub-Antarctic islands.


Macaroni Penguin


King Penguin 


Finally here are two very new Australian books about penguins:



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