I Want to Be Your Personal Penguin
Book One: Your Personal Penguin
We have a few authors who are clearly favorites in our house. Sandra Boynton is one of them. From day one, we have read our girls her board books. And it's hard to choose just one favorite, so I'll say that among the favorites is Your Personal Penguin. Why? Because it's so fitting for our girls. Since we found Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers in our messy house a few weeks ago, I thought we would do a book grouping post about our favorite penguin books.
First up, Sandra Boynton's Your Personal Penguin. I just love this book. Whether it was because I did extended breastfeeding with both my girls (partially by choice, partially not, story of my life as a mom, LOL), they were each very attached to me. As soon as I'd walk in the door--even though I only worked part time--a toddler Mini-Me or toddler Little Lion would come charging at me, screaming "Mok! Mama mok! Mamok!".
When I read this book to my girls, I always always sing it to them, albeit a bit off key. It's meant to be sung, there are notes all over the book, however it's too bad that I can't read music. Just like all of Sandra Boynton's books, Your Personal Penguin is chock full of endearing animal characters as well as a strong bond between the hippo and the penguin. Guess which one of us is the hippo in this scenario? (Me, always me.)
Book Two: Lost and Found
The second penguin book is Oliver Jeffers' Lost and Found. A little boy finds a penguin and decides he must be sad to be away from home. He takes him back to the south pole, only to find out he's made a huge mistake! Oliver Jeffers created a wonderful story about friendship, loneliness, and misunderstanding with a bit of adventure thrown in. Plus, the penguin is appropriately rotund and adorable and Jeffers has that wonderful knack of making us feel so much in such a little story. I want this penguin to be my personal penguin too!
My big question is this: did the boy choose the penguin, or did the penguin choose the boy? I'm betting on the latter, only it took the boy to think outside the box to figure it out.
Book Three: Penguin Problems
A screenshot of Jory John at the Charles Schulz museum from Random House Kids Instagram account
And, lastly, the third book of our favorite penguin books is Jory John's Penguin Problems that I reviewed recently. Lane Smith's gorgeous illustrations are understated in minimal colors but with large impact. I just saw an Instagram photo of Jory John at the Charles Schulz museum--apparently Peanuts had a big impact on this story. So, who do you think the penguin--with his non-stop complaining about his cup being half-empty--is modeled after? Must be Charlie Brown himself!
I wish we were on the Jory John book tour but we're not so lucky. (And apparently he used to teach at 826 Valencia, an awesome writing/educational center that I visited earlier this year in SF! Wish that was around when I was in grad school at SFSU.) I'm a big fan.
There you have it: a trio of penguins for your reading enjoyment. Check out one or check out all three, you won't be disappointed!
Below is the video of Davy Jones singing "Your Personal Penguin". He sings it very differently than I do to my girls, but I'll spare you my off tune version.
