PENGUIN JOURNEY

Spare words and images illustrate the creation of a penguin family for readers of all ages.

With a dramatic moonlit image and just seven well-chosen words (“Packed snow. / Moon glow. / Windblown. // All alone”), the book pulls readers into the icy and isolated polar life of a lone emperor penguin. Luckily, other penguins soon pop out of the ocean and onto the ice to begin the annual mating process. “Swing, sway. / Call, play. // Beaks in air. / Now a pair.” Words and images celebrate the Antarctic setting, the perfectly adapted penguins (“Waves glitter. / Flippers flitter”; “Mamas stand, / edge of land. // Into sea, diving free”—complete with bubble trails for each dive), and the joint efforts of mother and father penguin to raise their chick. The critical transfer of the pair’s sole egg from the mother’s feet to the father’s is described with stunning simplicity: “Feet kiss. Near miss.” Perfect for group storytime and discussion, rhyming phrases with just one to four words dramatically summarize each step in the mating (no penguin sex depicted) and parenting process. The familiar black and white of emperor penguins contrast well with the scenes of rich winter blues of Antarctic ice, sea, and sky and, later, the warm pastels of the spring skies as time passes, the temperatures warm, and the penguin family unit basks in their success: “No matter the weather, / a family together.” (This book was reviewed digitally.)

An object lesson in less is more.