Penguins

by Lisa Purcell

This work collects together many photos of all types of penguins engaging in their Antarctic antics, and combines them with catchy quotations and interesting facts about these feathery non-fliers.

Genres: Nonfiction, Birds

544 pages, Hardcover

First published March 3, 2008

Reviews

[Bionic Jean · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a book for people who don't read books, a book of photographs with minimal comment. There is one photograph per double page spread, with just one sentence opposite each photograph. They are extremely attractive, excellent photographs. But whatever possessed the publishers to start this series of "brick" books, about the size and shape of a house brick? The format is just a gimmick, and makes the book very difficult to hold, never mind read. (This particular book was a gift, and certainly lends itself to such. It must be a doddle to wrap in fancy paper.)

Leaving aside the difficulty of holding the book, it is sometimes hard to see the photographs themselves. For some reason the publishers have spread some of them over two pages. So you have heavy quality matt paper bound into a small "brick", so that the book will not open flat to enable you to see the pictures.

In addition, the accompanying text is not at all easy to see. It is printed on a variety of different coloured backgrounds, no doubt in case the boredom factor of actually having to read a whole sentence just proves too much ... I doubt very much whether most people would bother with it, with the "ooo"s and "aaah"s the photos will induce.

I failed to find any logical order to the book either. Some of the snippets of information would be interesting if you didn't have to fight so hard to take them in. All a bit random really.

But it all looks very pretty and the pictures are very good, so that's alright then.

[Zellizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who mainly reads bird books for the pictures, this book has the ideal text-to-photo ratio. So many nice pictures of penguinsssss

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This "brick" book of penguin photographs has been sitting on our coffee-table for a long time now, and I never get tired of looking at it. As the quote on the back of the book states, "It's practically impossible to look at a penguin and feel angry." Opposite each photograph is a small block of text with either a penguin-related quote or factoid. The pictures are not glossy or as brilliant as one would find in other penguin/wildlife books, but for casual perusal and a boost of penguin-joy this book is ideal.