Author: Scott Gordon
Publisher: Amazon
Rating: WORTHY!
Illustrated by Robert Rizzo.
Not to be confused with Penguin's Way by Johanna Johnston (which I haven't read), this is another wild and crazy romp with Scott Gordon. This time it's penguins. There's never any way to tell what it's going to be next - the only thing you can actually predict with these stories is that they will be something you can't predict.
Penguins are cool - especially since they live on the south pole - the opposite end of the planet from the polar bears, which just goes to show how smart penguins really are. It's pretty darned cool in Antarctica. The thing about living there, though is that a person learns self-reliance. You can't hang out in a frozen wasteland unless you're confident and resourceful, and this is exactly the message we get here, which is a great one for children to be given.
The penguin featured here is brimming with confidence and good motivational advice. It doesn't matter who you are or what you can or cannot do, all that is required of you is that you show up and deliver 100%. Forget about that over-achieving 110% crap. That's for losers. 100% is perfectly fine, as long as you bring it to whatever you're doing every day.
I liked the positive bouncy message and the streamlined artwork which helped focus on the message. Penguins put the pen in dependability, and the guin into, er, guintilate. Yeah! It's like scintillate, but without the sin. I recommend this.
