Perfectly polite penguins, not!

An omniscient narrator begins by singing the praises of penguins and their faultless manners. Cut-paper-like art shows each declaration ("Penguins always wait their turn") being contradicted by penguin Polly ("I LOVE BUSES! ME FIRST!"). When her mischief inspires copycats, Polly finally reconsiders her behavior ("We've upset baby Peter!"). As far as plugs for politeness go, this one is pleasantly painless. (c) Copyright 2021. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

When a rude penguin sees the effect of her bad manners, she changes her waysmost of the time.Observant readers will quickly see that the words and the illustrations don't match up on the first few pages. "Penguins ALWAYS wait their turn" shows one small penguin, sporting a blue beanie, pushing to the front of the line: "Me first!" And that same penguin is not too keen on sharing her train, though the other penguins' play is positively saccharine with sharing and politeness ("How kind!"). With a turn of the page, readers are introduced to Polly, who sticks out her tongue and giggles at readers when she's prompted to "say hello." Polly's manners are always a little rough, but especially so at dinnertime and especially when fish is on the menu. As the pages turn, readers will notice more and more penguins going to Polly's dark side and the chaos increasing. But then Polly discovers Peter, a baby penguin, hiding from all the noise, and suddenly Polly sees the value of manners. Now she is always polite...well, almost always. Trukhan's penguins are a delight, each with an accessory to tell them apart, with wings, motion lines, and sometimes eyebrows expressing emotion. The illustrations and backgrounds are simple, keeping the focus on the manners (or lack thereof) on display.This may do the trick for youngsters who have a Peter of their own depending on them to practice their own manners. (Picture book. 3-7) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.