Cheryl Rainfield, a member of the Fiction Picture Book nominating panel, is always looking for the good in children’s books. Cheryl keeps two sets of booklists on her site–one devoted to picture books and the other to Young Adult books–and one book blog. She’s a reviewing machine! Recently she considered Cybils-nominated picture book Penguin, by Polly Dunbar, and here’s her review:
Ben ripped open his present. Inside was a penguin.
"Hello, Penguin!" said Ben.
"What shall we play?" said Ben.
Penguin said nothing.
"Can’t you talk?" said Ben.
Penguin said nothing.
Ben tickled Penguin.
Penguin didn’t laugh.
Ben made his funniest face for Penguin.
Penguin didn’t laugh.
Sometimes
it’s hard to be patient. Ben gets frustrated when he talks to Penguin
and Penguin never answers him back. He goes through all sorts of
contortions trying to get Penguin to respond, talking to him,
entertaining him, and finally gets so frustrated that he yells at
Penguin. A passing lion doesn’t like Ben yelling, and swallows Ben–and
that’s when Penguin springs into action to save the day. Ben pops out,
safe and sound, and discovers he really does have a friend in
Penguin–and Penguin can talk, when he’s ready to. This is an
entertaining book about friendship, patience, frustration, and feeling
ignored, though at times it falters a little.
Read the rest of the review here .
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