Review by Booklist Review
PreS-Gr. 1. Penguin and his partner, Little Blue, are performers at Water World in San Francisco. After they are told that their show is going on the road, Penguin dreams of going home to Antarctica. Instead, the show winds up in Kansas, where the desire to re-create the icy waters of their homeland gets the performers into trouble with hotel security. In city after city, the penguins try to make themselves at home. They paint their hotel room black and white and order krill (they settle for shrimp), but they still miss Antarctica and their penguin friends. Then one day in Miami they spot a cruise ship and Penguin declares, We've signed our last autograph! We're going home. Tillotson's masterful oil paintings, drenched in cool blues, nicely convey the penguins' massive iceberg homeland as well as the joy of coming home to hundreds of thousands of penguins, all dressed for a party! Use this in conjunction with a science unit on penguins or a study of Antarctica. --Lauren Peterson Copyright 2003 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Filled with fun puns, this penguin tale touts the importance of home and friends. Penguin and his young sidekick, Little Blue, perform daily for packed crowds but Penguin remembers the glories of his former life ("Once he'd been emperor, Antarctica's King of the Ice. Now he flew solo in a tank with four walls at Water World, San Francisco"). The penguins take their show on the road and wind up in Kansas, at the Sunset Inn Hotel. Delightful chaos ensues as they try to re-create the comforts of Antarctica in their hotel room, using air-conditioning, tubfuls of cold water and an ice machine (they order krill and Baked Alaska from room service).Tillotson's (Night Train) full-bleed spreads and spot illustrations vary the pacing and advance the story in varying shades of blue: the artificial pool setting of Water World yields to the purplish-blue of the hotel rooms, and again to the pale blues of Antarctica's ocean and glacier. McDonald (The Sisters Club, reviewed below) subtly interweaves numerous facts into the story: Penguin welcomes Little Blue to his home saying: "All the krill you can eat. Temperature: 128.6 below zero. And this is just the tip of the iceberg!" (and even works in a witty remark in closing, " `There's no place like home,' Penguin said, remembering Kansas"). This satisfying odyssey is sure to entertain. Ages 4-7. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-Penguin and Little Blue perform stunts at a San Francisco water park, miles from Antarctica. They enjoy one another's company, but Penguin misses his many friends, with whom he longs to dive, huddle, and chatter. Their lives change dramatically when a promoter takes their show on the road. They stay in plush hotels all over the country, enjoying the amenities and indulging in room service, until one day Penguin spots a luxury cruise ship bound for his home. He books their passage on the spot, and a week later, the adventure ends with a joyful reunion at the South Pole. Inspired by a "hilarious" press photo of two penguins in a hotel room, McDonald's lighthearted fish-out-of-water tale anthropomorphizes its title characters in some ways, but they remain penguins at heart. Bright, icy blues predominate in Tillotson's oil paintings, which flesh out the comical aspects of the animals' predicament. A cheerful, charming read.-Catherine Threadgill, Charleston County Public Library, SC (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Penguin and Little Blue live at Water World in San Francisco, but Penguin misses Antarctica and his fellow penguins. While on a monotonous road trip touring for Water World--hotel room after hotel room--the two penguins finally run off and board a ship to Antarctica. Oil paintings in ice blue tones reflect the humor of this playful narrative. From HORN BOOK Spring 2004, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
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) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
