Cool Together! One Cool Friend by Toni Buzzeo

Elliot was a very proper young man.

So, on Saturday, when his father said, "Family day at the aquarium. Shall we go?"

Elliot thought, Kids, masses of noisy kids.

But he only said, "Of course; thank you for inviting me."

At the aquarium, Elliot's father is the quintessential detached dad, plopping onto a bench and instantly lost in his National Geographic, leaving Elliot, sober in his dark suit and formal bow tie, to his own devices. Eschewing the usual kid-pleasing, squeal-producing, hands-on exhibits, he takes the road not taken, down a quiet hall to a display that takes his breath away.

"PENGUINS!"

In their tidy black feather tuxedos, with their proper posture, the penguins reminded Elliot of himself.

Even Ferdinand Magellan looked like his kind of guy.

Suddenly Elliot falls in love with one little penguin, whom he christens "Magellan," and hot foots it back to where his dad is still reading.

"Are you having fun?" Dad asks.

"Yes, thank you. May I have a penguin?"

Absentmindedly, Dad's glance falls on the museum shop's Today's Special poster advertising large plush penguins for only $19.95. Peeling off a twenty, Dad generously agrees to the seemingly reasonable request and goes back to his article. And the amazed Elliot is off on his mission of penguin adoption, giving the amiable Magellan a ride home in his backpack.

Back home, Elliot sets out to make Magellan comfortable in his room, where he turns the heat down low enough to turn his plastic wading pool into a skating rink for his new pet. In the window comes the garden hose to fill the pool. "GRACK," says Magellan gratefully. With his buddy settled in, Elliot requests permission to head for the library to do some research on a school report on, um, Ferdinand Magellan.

"When I was in fourth grade, I got Captain Cook," his dad remarks companionably from his map-plastered study.

Back from his fact-finding mission on Magellanic penguins, Elliot requests frozen pizza for his dinner, and after apologetically pointing out that all they have is anchovy pizza, his father goes back to his own research, and Elliot zips back to his own room with his frigid result of his foraging for Magellan's dinner.

All is cozy and cool up in Elliot's room, with Magellan stuffed on anchovies and swimming contently in a tub floating with ice cubes, until his Dad blunders into the bathroom and discovers just what kind of penguin his son has broght home.

"ELLIOT!!!"

But all's well that ends well, when Elliot discovers that he has another soul mate in his family besides Magellan in Toni Buzzeo's delightful new book, One Cool Friend (Dial Books, 2012), as his father reveals his own unusual pet in a surprising (but deftly foreshadowed) ending that will leave kids satisfied and grinning from ear to ear.

Caldecott winner David Small turns out the perfect illustrations for Buzzeo's skillfully written text with just right touches of humor throughout to make this a not-to-be-missed new offering for the new year. In addition to the boy-brings-home-unusual-pet premise, there is another subtle theme here, felt more than stated, as the Publishers Weekly reviewer slyly points out: "Though very much a boy-and-his-pet story, it’s just as much about two gentlemen who appear to be orbiting entirely different planets. The revelation that they’re not so dissimilar after all is about as sweet as it gets."

Homing Penguin: Where Is Home, Little Pip? by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman

"Our home is where the land is free...
In our pebbly nest by the stormy sea
Where Mama and Papa and Pip--make three."

Little Pip's parents teach her the song of their family home, warm and loving, on the rocky shores of Antarctica. "Don't wander far, Little Pip,," they warn, and Pip doesn't--until one day a shiny black feather blows by and she just must follow and try to catch it. Soon Pip is far from the familiar pebbly beach and she knows she is lost.

"Where is home?" Pip asked. Nobody answered. So Pip set off to look.

Pip meets up with a breaching blue whale and repeats her question.

"Home is under the ocean deep...
Where fish are in schools and sea creatures creep.
Where my babies and I swim and leap." the whale sang.

"But that's not MY home," says Pip and continues her quest until she meets a kelp gull and asks again, "Where is home?"

"On the craggy cliffs in a humble nest
With sea to the east and land to the west.
Home is where my little chicks rest," the gull sang.

"But that's not my home," says Pip and waddles on until she meets a team of dogs pulling a sled, and puts her question once more to their leader.

"I can answer that question little bird.
Across the ocean, far away,
Home is where my puppies play."

"But that's not MY home," Pip says. "I want Mama and Papa. I want home." What to do? Sadly, she begins to sing her own family's song of home.

My home is where the land is free...
In a pebbly nest by the stormy sea
Where Mama and Papa and Pip make three.

And, of course, their baby's song is just what Mama and Papa need to find Little Pip, and following her faraway voice, the parents soon are by her side.

"Aren't we going home?" asks the tired little one as Mama and Papa snuggle her warm in their feathers. Mama and Papa kiss her and answer with their own question.

"Where is home? Is it near or far?
Is it a pebbly nest we all hold dear?
No, home is where there is nothing to fear.
Since we are together, home is right here."

The winning team of Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman (creators of the best-selling Bear Snores On series) tells a wonderfully warm tale of the meaning of home and family in their latest collaboration, Where Is Home, Little Pip? Wilson's soothing rhymes and Chapman's beautiful illustrations, done in wintry blues and whites with warm touches of pink and brown, combine in the reassuring evergreen message that home is indeed where the heart is.

Heart-y Reading: My Penguin Osbert in Love by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel

Right in the middle of the welcome mat I saw a familiar face. It was my penguin Osbert. Santa gave me Osbert for Christmas last year, and Osbert had been living at the zoo.

Apparently he had brought along a few friends.

Joe had found penguin-keeping a bit of a challenge and thought he'd found Osbert a permanent home in Penguin Place at the zoo. But here he is again--obviously on a mission.

Osbert had an invitation tucked under his wing:

ONCE IN A CENTURY SOUTH POLE EXTRAVAGANZA!

PLEASE JOIN US ON FEBRUARY 14 FOR THE CENTENNIAL GATHERING TO WITNESS THE SOUTHERN LIGHTS!

BE WITH YOUR FRIENDS AS THE ANTARCTIC SKY EXPLODES IN A DAZZLING DISPLAY THAT ONLY MOTHER NATURE CAN PROVIDE.

Yours sincerely,
Aurora Australis.

The dutiful Joe is in a time crunch! His mother's annual family Midwinter Bash is scheduled for that very night, but he still feels responsible for Osbert. As he says loyally, "Osbert wanted me to help him get to the South Pole and Osbert was my friend."

Luckily for the flightless penguins, Santa has been very generous with Joe this year, and he has his own personal helicopter all ready for takeoff with Osbert and his tuxedo-togged friends. After a few mistaken landings and a penguin potty break, they arrive at the Antarctic arena just in time to join the assembly to view the Aurora. Osbert, however, has his eyes on more than the skies when he falls totally in love with their hostess, the beauteous Aurora Australis herself.

Will Joe ever round up his lovestruck penguin in time for liftoff back to the Bash back home? It's an ice shelf cliffhanger, but the ever-loyal Joe finds a way to do it all in Elizabeth Cody Kimmel's new Valentine's Day entry, My Penguin Osbert in Love, which follows her popular Christmas story My Penguin Osbert. As in the first book, illustrator H. B. Lewis' charming and soulful portrayal of Joe, Osbert, and the polar landscape are half the fun!

Careful What You Wish For! My Penguin Osbert by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel

This year I was very specific in my letter to Santa Claus.

We have had a few misunderstandings in the past. For instance, last year I asked for a fire-engine-red race car with a detachable roof, a lightning bolt on the side, and retractable headlights.

And he did get me one. But it was three inches long!

We've all read those Christmas stories where a kid perseveres in getting his or her heart's desire until the climax of the book and lives, we are sure, happily ever after--or at least until time for Santa's next visit.

Elizabeth Cody Kimmel cleverly flips this well-worn premise in her popular picture book My Penguin Osbert (Book and Toy Gift Set). After a couple of "misunderstandings" with Santa, Joe methodically sets forth exactly what he wants for Christmas this year:

So this year I was really, really careful. I wrote Santa a long letter and told him that I would like to have my own pet penguin. NOT a stuffed penguin, but a REAL one from Antarctica. I told him my penguin should be one foot tall, white and black with a yellow beak, and his name should be OSBERT.

And this time Santa comes through. Joe finds exactly what he wished for on Christmas morning--a cute penguin with a tag around his neck reading "Hello! My name is Osbert."

But Joe soon learns that the care and feeding of Osbert requires some, er, attitude adjustments on his own part--long, freezing hours of outdoor play in the snow, breakfasts, lunches, and dinners of creamed herring (no pancakes with warm syrup for Joe), and long COLD baths with Osbert, ICY baths which go on for hours--but Joe pluckily perseveres to hold up his end of the deal.

"I had asked for Osbert, and now I had him,"

Joe does his best to give Osbert what he needs to be a happy penguin. But as days and days of frost nipped fingers and icy baths stretch ahead, Joe decides to pen a polite letter suggesting that Santa might want to swap his gift and take Osbert back to a place where he would be more comfortable. Sure enough, Joe finds a beautifully wrapped gift from Santa at the foot of his bed, but inside he finds only a warm pullover sweater and two tickets to Antarctic World at the zoo. It's a long walk to the zoo, but Osbert doesn't like bus rides and, as Joe dutifully reminds himself, "I asked for Osbert and now I had him."

But at Penguin Place at the zoo, Joe sees everything Osbert really needs--lots of penguins, snow slides with a big icy pool at the bottom, and all the herring he can eat.

I asked him if he would be happier living at the Penguin Place. Osbert looked into my eyes and then he nodded.

It's not the happy ending Joe asked for, but it is a happy outcome for both Joe and Osbert. It's a tongue-in-cheek bittersweet ending as Joe learns a thing or two about vetting his wishes before he makes them, but the kindly message of personal responsibility goes down easily, aided remarkably by artist H. B. Lewis' wonderful blue-toned wintry landscapes and the expressive faces of both Joe and his irrepressible pet.