Penguin and Pumpkin

July 28, 2014
In Yoon’s fourth book about Penguin, the affable bird and his posse travel onboard a piece of ice to see what fall looks like away from the cold and snow. But Penguin’s younger brother, Pumpkin, is too young to come along: “I’m sorry, Pumpkin. But it’s too far for a fledgling,” Penguin tells him. Once the penguins arrive on a distant farm filled with pumpkins, they collect a harvest bounty, including leaves and pumpkins of all different shapes and sizes. After floating back home in one of the giant hollowed-out gourds, the travelers share their experience and goods with loved ones, including Pumpkin, who imagined autumn in locales as far-flung as outer space during his brother’s absence. As in the previous books, Yoon creates an idiosyncratic cartoon world of heavy outlines and flat pools of color. Her squat, chunky penguins and their quirky adventures should find a sweet spot with toddlers. Ages 3–6.

June 15, 2014
Penguin, always visible with his orange scarf, wonders what fall looks like in other places-and so does his little brother, Pumpkin.Penguin and friends shove off on an ice floe to find fall, but Pumpkin is too small to come along. After some floating, they find a farm, which is full of pumpkins of all shapes and sizes. But what really captivates Penguin is the multicolored leaves falling everywhere. Riding in a hollowed-out pumpkin, the group tows another one that's full of treasures (including books) back home, along with a treat that will show little Pumpkin just what fall looks like. The lines and shapes are muscular and graphic, and the palette is dominated, of course, by shades of orange and the blues and whites of ocean and ice. Pumpkin himself, meanwhile, has imagined fall in a number of other sorts of places with his "space-tacular imagination." All the penguins have hats or mufflers or glasses or other distinguishing accessories in this series' odd sort of anthropomorphic community.Readers with a generous tolerance for quirkiness will find that this seasonal tale, that's also a bit about little brothers, adventures and the endless diversity of pumpkins, hits the spot. (Picture book. 4-7)

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August 1, 2014

PreS-K-In his third adventure, Penguin is curious about what autumn looks like, so he and six of his friends decide to go to a farm to find out. Penguin's baby brother, Pumpkin, wants to come too, but the trip is deemed too far for him. Through the long journey across the ocean, comical spot art shows time passing: the iceberg on which the group rides grows smaller and smaller, until the penguins are left swimming to shore. In the farm's pumpkin patch, every pumpkin reminds Penguin of his brother back at home, and so he plans a special surprise. Upon their return, they find that Pumpkin managed to pass the time imagining what fall would be like in outer space. Bright digital art with bold outlines and succinct narration with some dialogue make this story well suited for reading aloud. Occasionally the story line seems to totter off course, but fans of Penguin won't mind a bit.-Julie Roach, Cambridge Public Library, MA

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