Party with Penguins: Harriet Gets Carried Away by Jessie Sima

HARRIET LOVED COSTUMES!

It's not just that she's sometimes of a mind to climb in a costume for Halloween, or for a fun dress-up play date with a friend, or a special birthday bash.

HARRIET WORE COSTUMES ALL THE TIME.

That's right. Harriet dresses like a dragon for an appointment in the dentist's chair. At the park she's a fairy queen with a dark side, black bat wings.

But today is party day, and Harriet dons her all-purpose costume to run to the corner grocery for snacks. Disguised and decked out in a penguin suit with a red bowtie, she's just realized she forgot the party hats when she finds herself swept up by a passel of penguins--the real kind! Does Harriet need a permit for a penguin parade?

The press of penguins sweeps Harriet along. What about her party hats?

"WHERE ARE WE GOING?" SHE QUERIES.

Will Harriet be forced to march as an incognito penguin back to Antarctica? Not if she can hail a ride with a passing orca, in Jessie Sima's Harriet Gets Carried Away (Simon and Schuster, 2018). All's well that ends well, with an elaborate alfresco affair on the rooftop. But is that her friend Olivia in a wolf suit, followed by a pack of little howling wolves? Despite which diva has the, er, wildest costume, it's the party of the season with Harriet in charge, and with the help of the illustrations of clever cartoon drawings of Jessie Sima, it's a party no one will want to miss. Publishers Weeklycalls "Harriet's intrepid adventure a delightful readaloud."

Taking the Plunge! Be Brave, Little Penguin by Giles Andreae

A colony of penguins are living together at the edge of the cold Antarctic Ocean.

There are fat ones, there were thin ones.
There were short ones and tall.
But little penguin Pip-Pip was
The smallest of them all.

And his size is not the only thing that sets Pip apart.

All the other little penguins are swimming and diving cheerfully in the sea.  Only Pip-Pip refuses to take the plunge. He hides out in his little igloo, playing solo, to avoid the teasing of the other little ones.

Pip's Mom takes his wing gently and leads him to the edge of the ice shelf, but Pip-Pip makes his case.

But what if the water's freezing, Mom?
What if I get in,
And it's just too dark and deep for me,
And WHAT IF I CAN'T SWIM?

And what if there are MONSTERS?"

Mom doesn't contest his points, but she suggests that there are other possibilities.

"But what if in that water,
There are friends for you to meet.
And what if it's light and warm
And full of treats to eat?"

Hmmm. Mom's got a point. And he is a little hungry. Although his heart gives a big thump...
Little Penguin makes the jump!

And it's great! There are friends to play with, treats to eat, and the water's not so cold after all. In fact, Pip stays down long enough for Mom to begin to worry.

Suddenly he pops out of the sea and sails through air. Is Pip-Pip the first penguin to fly?

Whether it's venturing into a new play group or starting to school, sometimes little ones just need to screw up their courage and take the plunge into new activities, and in Giles Andreae's Be Brave, Little Penguin (Orchard Books, 2018 Am. ed.), little Pip-Pip spreads his wings bravely. With rhythmic and rhyming quatrains and the evocatively energetic and whimsical illustrations of artist Guy Parker-Reeves, youngsters may be empowered to try their own wings in doing something that's new. Share this one with Andreae's and Parker-Reeves earlier best-seller, Giraffes Can't Dance.

Life in Black and White: Penguin Problems by Jory John

Penguins are a hot property in picture book land, but for one penguin in a perpetually pessimistic mindset, the mood is perennially chilly.

My beak is cold. The ocean smells too salty today. It snowed some more last night, and I don't even like snow.

And he's getting hungry, which means he has to jump into an icy sea, where the best he can hope for is a cold, soggy fish. And where is a fish when you need one?

Pessimistic Penguin takes the plunge. But under the sea is no improvement.

It's actually F-R-E-E-Z-I-N-G down there.

I sink like a rock.

Oh, great! A SHARK!

Oh, great! An ORCA!

Our despondent penguin finds himself at the end of a veritable food chain of predators--a whale chasing a shark, the shark chasing a leopard seal, and the seal chasing HIM!!

Barely escaping back on the barren shore, the depressed penguin begins a major whinge. He looks silly when he waddles. His flippers ache and he can't fly. Everyone looks alike, so he can't even find his family. To prove it, he approaches a parental-looking penguin.

"MOM?"

"I have absolutely no idea who you are!"

Our despairing penguin needs an anti-gloom guru, which he finds in the person of a philosophic walrus, who spouts pearls of wisdom for free, advising him to see the beauty all around him, feel the sunshine on his shoulders and the love of his fellow penguins, and know that he is right where he is supposed to be, blah, blah, blah.

"Who the heck was that guy?

Walruses don't understand penguin problems!

Okay, Okay. Maybe that walrus has a point."

Yeah, yeah, yeah, the sky and ocean are a nice blue.... and it's "look-for-the-silver-lining" time down in polar penguin land, in Jory John 's Penguin Problems (Random House, 2016), as our petulant penguin bucks up and determines to try to appreciate his ecological niche--just as his pretty little snowflakes morph into yet another below-zero blizzard.

Life's a icy beach for this peevish penguin, but author John's glorious whine about the injustices of polar life could make even a killer whale snicker. Caldecott artist Lane Smith does a dandy job in this repeat study in black and white, with plentiful placement of orange accents and text. For youngsters who've got a good grumble going, this little lesson in black humor will coax a grin out of the the gloomiest grinch. "Well-paced, bursting with humor, and charmingly misanthropic," counsels Kirkus Reviews.

Jory John's previously top-selling, giggle-producing, yet pessimistic books include Quit Calling Me a Monster! I Will Chomp You!, the laments of the extinct dino, All My Friends Are Dead and All My Friends Are Still Dead, and for kids a bit old for alphabet books but just right for wry wit, K is for Knifeball: An Alphabet of Terrible Advice.