Young Joe knows Santa can be tricky. He does not always understand exactly the present Joe describes. When he asks for a red racing car with "a detachable roof, a lightning bolt on the side and retracting headlights." The right car comes matching the description but it is only ten centimetres long.
The next year Joe asks for a trampoline but that's a tough word to spell - Santa supplies a pogo stick!
So, this year Joe is determined there will be no confusion. He wants:
- a penguin
- a real penguin
- not a suffed toy
- from Antarctica
- thirty centimetres tall
- black and white with a yellow beak
- his name should be Osbert
Thank goodness this time Santa gets it right. BUT wait a minute how can this young boy, living in a regular house, look after a REAL penguin. Think about food, water, cold, communication! Luckily for Osbert communication is not an issue. He makes his demands known and so Joe cannot play with his other presents the pair head outside to play in the snow. Then Osbert wants to stay in the bath long after the water has gone cold. And breakfast has to be chilled herring with seaweed jam. That afternoon Joe writes back to Santa:
"Dear Santa,
How are you and Mrs Claus? We are fine.
Thank you for the great penguin, called Osbert. We have cold baths together and eat herring and seaweed jam for breakfast. I am getting used to spending all day in the snow.
Plus it turned out I didn't have frostbite after all.
Your friend
Joe
PS One more thing, Santa. If you feel like maybe I should have asked for a different present, and you want to swap, that would be ok."
My Penguin Osbert is terrific to read aloud and then your young group could write their own letters to Santa. Here is the sequel to My Penguin Osbert:
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