A Penguin Story

by Antoinette Portis, Antoinette Portis (Illustrator)

Overview

Edna the penguin knows only the three colors that surround her: white ice, black night, and blue sea. But she is convinced there is something more out there. So she sets out on a quest...a quest for color. When she finally finds what she's been looking for, it is everything she hoped for and more. But that doesn't mean she will ever stop looking.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061965203
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	03/08/2011
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	809,611
File size:	7 MB
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Antoinette Portis is the author and illustrator of the international bestseller Not a Box (a New York Times Best Illustrated Book and a 2007 Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Book), Not a Stick, A Penguin Story (also chosen as a New York Times Best Illustrated Book), and many more books for children. She attended the UCLA School of Fine Arts and is a former creative director at Disney. Antoinette lives in Southern California.

Editorial Reviews

The story, a quest to bring color into a lacking world, isn't new to children's literature, but that's all right; children who take to this book won't know the precedents…the artwork…[is] bold, simple, cleanly designed.
—The New York Times

Paul O. Zelinsky

Edna the penguin yearns for something more stimulating than a minimalist horizon. The endless white of snow and ice, the black of the night sky and the "Blue, blue, blue. Forever" of the sky and ocean only increase her ennui. Readers know alternatives exist because a sunset-orange seaplane goes by when Edna's back is turned; brilliant green and orange endpapers, too, contrast with the limited palette and blocky compositions. Edna treks over icebergs to a revelatory destination, then brings her brood to meet a friendly human expedition camping in ambulance-orange domes and wearing matching jumpsuits; she proudly waddles home with a souvenir orange rubber glove. Portis (Not a Box) celebrates those who long for art and, with her own playful rendering, she inspires readers to celebrate, too. Ages 4-8. (Jan.)

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Publishers Weekly

PreS-Gr 2

Like the imaginative heroes of Portis's Not a Box (2007) and Not a Stick (2008, both HarperCollins), Edna yearns for something different. Though her fellow penguins are content to play and eat in their world of white snow, black night, and blue sea, she seeks something else. She finds it-a giant, bright orange research station, inhabited by orange-coated researchers. When she takes the other penguins there, they are suitably impressed, and one of the researchers even gives her a colorful glove. As the others go back to their normal lives, Edna stands atop an iceberg, wearing the orange glove like a hat, wondering "What else could there be?" This gentle tribute to dreamers crackles with quiet humor, and the art's limited palette both parallels the plot and lends the book a classic feel. Portis's ability to convey emotion and character through the slightest change in Edna's beady eyes and flippers is extraordinary, and the interplay of the text and pictures nears perfection. A delightful story, delightfully told.-Kathleen Kelly MacMillan, Carroll County Public Library, MD

School Library Journal

Icy Antarctica is frustratingly monochromatic for Edna the penguin, so she forsakes playing (and occasionally even lunch) to scan the horizon for something else. What does she see as she gazes out at the relentless ice and snow? "White, thinks Edna. Like yesterday." At night it's, "Black. Like tomorrow" and the ocean is just, "Blue, blue, blue. Forever." Life's tricolor monotony lifts when she accidentally crashes into a safety-orange "something else"-a large tent set up in a scientists' camp. "WOW!" she cries, and, endearingly, proceeds to hug what she can of it. Snow falls on spare, artfully composed landscapes in rough dabs of paint, and the adorable penguins in thickly textured lines resemble earplugs with feet. Young readers may gleefully gloat when they spot things Edna doesn't see at first-a bright orange plane flies by when her back is turned, and a green ship slips undetected into a double-page spread. The deliberately clashing endpapers, solid orange and green, extend the theme in this sweet story of yearning. (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews