From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 2–A simple, lyrical text follows the fortunes of an Emperor penguin from laying her first egg through her epic journey to open sea seeking food and culminating in her timely return with a belly full to regurgitate for her newly hatched chick. The whole is perfectly accompanied by Marks's luminous blue-toned watercolors, emphasizing the vast distances, the harsh weather, and the dangers lurking in the sea off the ice shelf of Antarctica. The book is similar in scope to Brenda Z. Guiberson's handsome
The Emperor Lays an Egg (Holt, 2001), which focuses on the chick, and Martin Jenkins's simpler, attractive
The Emperor's Egg (Candlewick, 1999), which highlights the male's long vigil. Team Markle's book with either (or both) of the above, and toss Judy Sierra's rollicking
Antarctic Antics: A Book of Penguin Poems (Harcourt, 1998) into the mix for a nifty unit on Emperor penguins.
–Patricia Manning, formerly at Eastchester Public Library, NY Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
K-Gr. 3. With evocative watercolor-and-ink images, this beautiful picture-book tribute to female emperor penguins plunges children into the harsh icy landscape and frigid waters of Antarctica, home to the penguins. The understated, lyrical text follows a young mother penguin as she lays her first egg and then, leaving her mate to tend it, joins the other females as they travel for five days to reach the pack ice and food. Once there, she swims day after day, swallowing her fill of fish and watching for dangerous seals and hunters. In all, she travels 930 miles on a zigzag course until the beginning of August, when instinct tells her it's time to return to her mate and the egg's hatching. A familiar author of nonfiction science series books presents facts in a different way in this excellent nature narrative, which is respectful, unsentimental, and rich in detail. Marks' softly colored art is a perfect compliment. A page of back matter provides additional information, including a bibliography, a list of Web sites, and an author's note about her Antarctic explorations.
Julie CumminsCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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