About Penguins: A Guide for Children (About... (Peachtree))
Kindergarten-Grade 3—A brief overview of the 17 species of penguins inhabiting the Southern Hemisphere. A page with one or two simple sentences (or, sometimes, a partial sentence) alternates with realistic, often-full-page watercolor paintings of the featured animals. The text describes key physical and behavioral characteristics common to all penguins, diet, and some special characteristics of different species. Most of the beautifully rendered paintings feature a colony of penguins in a natural setting showing front, back, and side views of the birds; in some illustrations, they appear in the foreground, clearly displaying body markings, colors, distinctive crests, etc. Each species is identified in a caption on the text page. Short blocks of text, paired with small color replicas of the paintings, provide more detailed information in an afterword, along with the animals' geographical range. Although the amount of detail the minimal text offers is, perforce, limited, Sill's title still compares favorably with other introductions aimed at about the same age level. Its carefully executed watercolor artwork is more precise than that in Gail Gibbons'sPenguins!(Holiday House, 1998) and depicts more species than the photographs in Frankie Stout'sPenguins(Rosen, 2009). With its simple text and lovely watercolors,About Penguinswill appeal to a wide audience.—Karey Wehner, formerly at San Francisco Public LibraryEND