Mr. Popper's Penguins

March 29, 1993
Aside from the alliterative appeal of a pop-up Mr. Popper, it's hard to see how the children's classic benefits from this particular format. From the arrival of a penguin at the Popper home through the household's adjustments to the formation of Popper's Performing Penguin touring show, the key episodes of the original receive hasty--needfully abridged--treatment. Despite the condensation, a great deal of text crowds the pages, lessening the book's fascination for younger readers. Older readers, on the other hand, will probably not be impressed with the paper engineering. Most of it lacks sophistication (pull a tab, and a penguin flaps its wing or sleds down a hill); in some places it's just silly (one pull-tab makes a penguin descend a slide--but only halfway). At no point, however, do the illustrations sustain the amount of text. Stick with the real thing. Ages 6-10.