PENGUIN AND LITTLE BLUE

Two showbiz penguins finally find their way home in this subzero heart-warmer. From Kansas to Boston, Las Vegas to Little Rock, it’s the same day after day: dive, dive, dive. Flap, flap, flap. Then sign autographs. Not even hotel ice machines and room service platters of shrimp Creole can break the monotony. Once an emperor with 1,328,048 friends, Penguin now has only Little Blue for company, and two just don’t make a huddle—so at last, in desperation, they break away from the tour to hop aboard an ocean liner for a long trip south. In pictures rich in blues and purples, Tillotson depicts the portly performers as avian celebrities, lonely even though surrounded by admiring human fans. At last, Antarctic shores come into sight, where “before their eyes were hundreds of penguins, thousands of penguins, hundreds of thousands of penguins, all dressed for a party!” “There’s no place like home,” sighs Penguin. Agreed. Young readers will flap their flippers at this tongue-in-cheek jaunt. (Picture book. 6-8)