The Little Penguin

by A.J. Wood, Stephanie Boey

Nature lovers of all ages will delight in the captivating illustrations and the reassuring story about growing up.

Genres: Picture Books, Animals, Childrens, Fiction, Family, Birds, Nature

24 pages, Picture Book Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story is not the greatest, the pace for how fast a penguin grows up is not very realistic at all, however the artwork and book texturing was wonderful.

The book is about a newborn penguin who gets distracted and separated from his father. He starts losing his baby feathers, is sad, and finds his parents later that day, goes swimming then is fully in his adult feathers. But this is a children's book so it gets a lot of slack. Would have been 3 stars but artwork bumped it to four.

[Stacy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book about a cute little penguin, who starts to molt and thinks he will never become an Emperor of the Ice like his father.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story is both a story about a penguin, but also a metaphor for growing up. As the penguin grows up, he he gets scared because his baby feathers start to fall out. What he doesn't understand is that losing his gray feathers is actually a good thing because it leaves room for his new sleek feathers which keep him from freezing. This mirrors what it feels like to grow up. We don't understand that losing things from our childhood is sometimes good until we get older, but then we see that we've grown up and that we are better than we were before.

The art is really cute. They also show a bunch of different penguins in the book. All around a very cute book for all penguin lovers.

[Doris Lucas · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is about a newborn penguin who gets distracted and separated from his father. He starts losing his baby feathers, which is sad for him. Then, he finds his parents later that day, goes swimming, then is fully in his adult feathers. I did not like the picture, but overall great story. This book is great for noticing and embracing our differences. I would read this book for a black history project for preschoolers.

[Lila Marantz · Rating 4 out of 5]

The illustrations are beautiful and embossed. One scientific inaccuracy bothered me somewhat. Emperor penguins do not huddle with other species of penguin. The highly social Emperor is exclusive in their huddle. I guess they don't speak English either. 🤷

[Ita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great illustrations and texturing on the pages. A simple book.

[Little Champs]

2926

[Rebekah · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book about penguins.

[Cindy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Anthropomorphize life of a juvenile emperor penguins

[Ainsley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely illustrations and nice story.

[Joy Gerbode · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very cute ... great for little children, especially if they love penguins!

[Tayler Pomeroy · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The Little Penguin” is a cute little story about a baby Emperor Penguin that tries to find his mother and father before all his feathers fall out. In this book, the story is simple enough to be a bedinner reader book. This book has big font, and although it is fiction and the penguins talk, is still very informational for students who like penguins. There are also many vocabulary words that could be discussed. The Illustrations are beautiful full-page paintings with many warm and natural colors. It is almost like the illustrations are soft on the eyes. Also, the pages are made of two-ply cardstock, so some of the animals in the illustrations and some snowflakes have 3-D texture from imprinting the backside. I like how the theme of this book is growing up and loving parents. Those are good books to read to primary grade students. If I was to read this in a classroom, I would stop at the end of some of the sentences and ask questions such as “why does the daddy take care of the egg?” or “Where is mommy penguin?” This way, a cute book can also teach concepts about penguins.

[J · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a cute and interesting book that shows a message to our younger generation that if you are too caught up in wanting to grow up then you will miss the actual changes in yourself.

The writing is small so I would suggest this is a book for children who are a bit more advanced in reading than in the beginning generation. They will find the writing simple but the story a bit longer than what is given.

What turned me away from this book is the fact that the information about the penguins wasn't actually the most factual. The mother penguin didn't appear until towards the end while there is the continual procession between mother and father to feed the chick until it is ready to go to the sea.

Still all in all a cute story with a good message....

[Cassandra Ball · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought that this was a cute book for children to read however, there were a couple things that I didn't like. Those things were: I didn't like how at the beginning of the book it didn't explain that males penguins are the ones who sit on the eggs til they hatch. Children don't know that and I think that the author should have explained that. It also made me really sad when the little penguin was losing his feathers and couldn't find his mom and dad. But, then at the same time I thought that if the author was going to use that approach that it should have taken longer for him to find his mom and dad. Other than those couple of things I thought that the book was cute.

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Little Penguin is the story of a penguin chick finding his way and adapting to his new surroundings. He doesn't heed his father's warnings not to stray and finds himself in as strange place with other animals. He fears he is lost forever and is worried because all his feather's are dropping off. When he finally finds his father, and his mother, too, he is where he truly belongs at last.

Used for "Penguin Party" Storytime- July, 2010 and

"World Traveler's Club-Antarctica" Storytime- June, 2010.

[Amy Partin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book reminded me of The Ugly Duckling, but with a penguin. This would be great to read to young students who are having self esteem issues.
The Little Penguin almost gives insight to the beginning stages of the penguin life cycle. You can use this book for a science activity when you are talking about stages of animals' life cycles. Though it is not an accurate reference it would be a great read.

[Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

12/09: It is a cute enough story, but it is all wrong... a fact not lost on my boys. You will not find such a variety of penguin species together in one place. When a large bird is introduced into the story (while Little Penguin is alone, no less), my boys shivered and whispered, "Skua!" in fright. It's just all wrong and not in a cutesy "Sometimes you just have to let art flow over you" sort of way. These errors detracted from the story.

[Ashley Correll · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a cute book, but I felt that the story could have been a little more in depth. Overall the story is good and the pictures are pretty. This story is about a penguin named Little Penguin who looked up at the big penguins with their sleek, shiny feathers and thier long, stong beaks. He wished more than anything for the day when he could look like them.

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe it's just because I've read a lot of penguin books today, but there are a lot better versions of this story out there. It tells the story of a baby penguin's journey from egg to his first visit to the ocean.

Okay for storytimes...

[Tressa Sands · Rating 3 out of 5]

The journey of the penguin was very fast paced, but I liked that it taught that it was okay to change and grow up. I wish it had been longer, more detailed. Other than that, it was a cute story and I'm glad the penguin made it home!

[Trista · Rating 3 out of 5]

A cute book about a baby penguin.

[Nina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book kind of tells the story a little of how penguins are born and grow up. It kind of reminds me of the ugly duckling, but with a penguin instead of a duck. Its a cute short book.

[Devin L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is very Happy!!!

[Linda K · Rating 3 out of 5]

So sweet.............

[Adrienne · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story was all right; the illustrations were better. I thought it was cool that the book was texturized, so you can feel feathers and footprints and animals. Cool.

[Penny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute but not great.

[Sandra Strange · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice illustrations make this gentle story of an empire penguin's journey from egg to adult to egg guard sweet and fun to read.

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Darling

[Dana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lovely artwork and interesting texture effect on the thick pages.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adelie, Chinstrap, Emperor, Gentoo (found in Mrs. B's class at LEO).