Penguins Don't Wear Sweaters! by Marikka Tamura - OPTIONAL

Tamura, Marikka  Penguins Don’t Wear Sweaters!  Illustrated by Daniel Rieley  PICTURE BOOK Nancy Paulsen Books, 2018.  $16.99  Content: G.  

Penguins enjoy swimming, diving and eating fish.  One day a boat comes by and leaves icky oil in the penguins’ habitat.  The oil isn’t good for the penguins, and so Big Boots comes along and decides to make sweaters for the little penguins.  Soon the sweaters are removed, the penguins are washed with soap and they are able to go back to their penguin ways.  

This book is based on actual events in which many people made sweaters for penguins affected by an oil spill.  Eventually, it became evident that sweaters weren’t a good solution for the penguins and other methods were used.  The explanation at the back of the book is easier to understand than the story.  The story is very choppy and when the human “Big Boots” is introduced to the story it is confusing.  The illustrations are adorable.  

EL (K-3) – OPTIONAL.  Reviewer, C. Peterson.