Penguin's big adventure by Salina Yoon

Penguin series. Bloomsbury, 2015. ISBN 9781408868713
(Age: 3+) Recommended. Friendship, Adventure, North Pole. When Penguin decides to visit the North Pole, he says goodbye to several animals who are his friends. He consults his map and loads his backpack with things he will need. He says goodbye to Emily, busy sewing a quilt, then Pumpkin who is busy building a basket, and finally Bootsy, braiding a rope. On the way north he meets other friends he has met in previous adventures. Reaching the North Pole he is ecstatic, and turns cartwheels, throws confetti and erects a sign. But there is no one there. Eventually a polar bear wanders by and each is a little uncertain of the other. But becoming friends, they explore the pole together, until Penguin's friends fly in from further south to take him back home. After all the best part of having an adventure is coming home.
This is a charming book in the series about Penguin. For younger readers it will introduce them to the idea of north and south poles and what animals live in each place; it will teach them about the environment of the North pole, and perhaps introduce the idea of explorers who went there. Younger readers will know that Penguin has some very good friends, some who will do anything for him, even traveling from one end of the world to the other, and that he has met another friend, one who is left a map. Younger readers may be able to predict what might happen in the next book, and sympathise with Penguin making friends in this book. The black outlined illustrations are clear and colour filled, making some aspects of the North Pole easily identified for younger readers.
Fran Knight