THE KING PENGUIN

A king penguin embraces his nomenclature a bit too much.

Percival Penguin sits upon an icy throne, with a cloak, staff, and crown. He is a king penguin, after all. It must be his duty to rule over the others. However, his list of royal decrees is selfish (except “Do not eat yellow snow.” That’s good advice for all), and he greedily gobbles more fish than anyone else. The other penguins soon revolt and banish Percival from the colony. Undeterred, Percival arrogantly declares that he just needs a new kingdom. However, all of the other creatures that he finds—seals, polar bears, walruses, and more—all have one trait in common: They want to eat Percival. (Yes, even the sardines.) That makes being their king rather difficult. Then Percival meets the only species of penguin that could make him reconsider his stance on authority—the emperor penguin. Percival suddenly sees names in a whole new light. Back at home, chaos reigns among the penguins, who all want to be in charge, but they all soon learn to work together for the good of the community. Humorous alliterative asides (“SALUTATIONS! My slippery subjects!”), quick quips (“So if I’m a macaroni penguin, does that make me pasta?”), and heavily anthropomorphized depictions of adorably squat penguins lift the mood of this whimsical tale that also has a sound message about the dangers of wielding power. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A positively plucky look at government from a penguin’s perspective.