PENGUIN FLIES HOME

The rotund, ambitious hero of Flight School (2014) returns home to Antarctica to share the magic of flying above the earth with his penguin friends.

When Teacher and Flamingo realize that Penguin seems homesick, they plan together to fly the little flightless bird the long distance to his icy home. There, Penguin tries to convince the other young penguins of the marvels of flying. They are unconvinced—and take joy in a plunge and some underwater soaring. In the end, Penguin realizes that his particular passion for flying makes him different but that being different is just fine. Judge’s animated style invests Penguin, his classmates, and his penguin friends with endearing personalities. Penguin is attired in goggles and the flight suit that helps his more-accomplished flying friends to bear him aloft. Made of fishing lines with attendant lures bouncing from the ends, the apparatus gives him a jaunty look. Aerial scenes from Penguin’s viewpoint make his happiness at seeing the world from the sky persuasive, and the affection shown him by his flight school companions as well as by his fellow penguins is affirming. Endpapers offer yearbook-style portraits from Penguin’s flight school and vignettes from his scrapbook of his trip to Antarctica.

Lighthearted and lots of fun.