Snow penguin by Tony Mitton

Ill. by Alison Brown. Bloomsbury, 2017. ISBN 9781408862957
(Age: 4+) Recommended. Themes: Penguins, Antarctica, Adventure, Exploration. In the Antarctic, one little penguin decides to explore his surrounds. He leaves the warmth of his family, and looks outward, standing on a piece of ice which cracks and floats away from the land. On his little piece of ice he sees the most wondrous things: a blue whale which thrashes its large tail nearby, its baby calf at its side, a school of orca swim by, an elephant seal waking from its nap, a seal and its pup.
Told in rhyming lines, the words are easily remembered by young people willing and eager to say the story out loud, while predicting the rhyming word at the end of each sentence.
It is when the baby penguin sees the seal and its pup that he begins to think about his own family and wonders how to get back to them.
Thankfully his piece of ice knocks into the ice near the pack of penguins and he is able to be reunited with his family.
Younger children will love reading of the little penguin and its adventures on the ice, reading along with the teacher or parent, predicting the words that rhyme, learning about the animals and their environment in the Antarctic. The illustrations add to the enjoyment of the read, covering every page with the cold blues and whites of the Antarctic environment.
Fran Knight