PENGUIN HUDDLE

A silly, chilly calamity unfolds in the South Pole.

One night, while a group of penguins are all huddled together to keep warm against the blowing winds, they wake to find that they are frozen to each other! A few tiny webbed feet poke out here or there, and a flipper or two are free, but the pack is, well, tightly packed, in ice. How can they escape? Their friends attempt to help, but nothing works. Pipsqueak, a tiny penguin with a fuzzy woolen cap and scarf, decides a trip to the city might be their only hope. An albatross carries the “penguin ice pop” across the seas, and a whale takes them the rest of the way. Once they reach the bustling metropolis, populated by anthropomorphic animals, other pals offer solutions (a lobster attempts to snip them free at the barber shop, and beetles try to break the ice at the bowling alley), but the “Doctopus” (a doctor octopus, of course) is the only one who can save the day. The penguins’ wide eyes are incredibly expressive, imbuing their hijinks with hilarity, and there’s plenty of fun vocab sprinkled through—their “huddle” turns into a “struggle,” which is certainly a “muddle” but luckily ends in a “puddle” with a “cuddle.” (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A gleeful ode to friendship and problem-solving.