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Summary
Summary
There's a lot going on at the South Pole! There are slippery slopes and frozen floes and wild animals all around. But when one penguin goes looking for adventure, he doesn't see anything exciting at all going on. Could it be he's just not looking closely enough?
From the creators of the Berenstain Bears comes a storybook filled with adventure for all.
Author Notes
Stan Berenstain was born in 1923 in Philadelphia, the same year and place as his future wife, Jan. They met as students at the Philadelphia College of Art. World War II delayed their career plans: Stan joined the army as a medical assistant while Jan supported the war effort by working in an airplane factory. They married in 1946 and together began drawing cartoons for the McCall's/Good Housekeeping It's All in the Family series. They worked on this feature from 1956 through 1990.
The Big Honey Hunt, published in 1962, was their first book for children. This book about a family of bears, written for Dr. Seuss's Beginner Books series, was so popular that Dr. Seuss himself, Theodore Geisel, encouraged them to write more stories. Geisel's advice launched the Berenstains on life-career writing and illustrating the very successful Berenstain Bears books.
The Berenstain Bears' New Baby, published in 1974, was the beginning of the First Time Books series. The Children's Choice Award was given to The Berenstain Bears' New Neighbors in 1995. The Berenstains were also honored for their work in children's literature when they received the Ludington Award in 1989. There have been television shows based on the Berenstain Bears books, as well as CD-ROMs and videos.
Stan Berenstain passed away on November 26th, 2005, after a lengthy battle with lymphoma. He was 82.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-Originally intended to be the follow-up to the Berenstains's The Big Honey Hunt (Random, 1962), this manuscript was completed by Jan and their son Mike after Stan's death. Following the pattern of the early books, the rhymed text features an endearing character reminiscent of Papa Bear at his most clueless. Having received a blank journal in the mail, a penguin sets off on a walk near his South Pole igloo, determined to have adventures to write about. As he wanders, he dreams of stopping bad guys with a giant snowball, jumping on monsters, facing danger on an ice floe, and escaping whales; he is oblivious to the fact that all these things are happening around him. Finally, the penguin returns home, hoping to find something interesting to write about tomorrow. The repetitive text is fine for beginning readers, but some of the verses do not scan properly. Humorous pictures make up for any faults in the text, as long as readers are willing to get past the fact that polar bears, Arctic wolves, and walruses do not live at the South Pole. Like the lucky chicken in Pat Hutchins's Rosie's Walk (Macmillan, 1968), this peripatetic penguin manages to escape becoming a meal. Children will enjoy finding the lurking predators and predicting what will happen next.-Martha Simpson, Stratford Library Association, CT (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Originally intended as the Berenstains' second book--following The Big Honey Hunt (1962), which marked the first appearance of the Berenstain Bears--this story was set aside as the husband-and-wife team focused on their popular Bear family. After the death of Stan Berenstain in 2005, Jan finished the book with their son, Mike. The story features an oblivious main character for readers to feel smarter than and a humorous disconnect between text and art--now-common contrivances that are used more successfully elsewhere. After the penguin receives a blank book ("Something happens every day./ Write it down right away" reads the cover), he leaves his igloo looking for a story. In clunky, singsong rhymes, the penguin recounts his futile search for adventure ("No! That is no good--/ I made a snowball. Look./ That is not good/ for my new book"), but the illustrations tell another story. The penguin's snowball wipes out three ferocious wolves, lumps of snow are really polar bears, and a "stepping stone" in the water is actually a submerged (and angry) walrus. With awkward, repetitive verse and a thin plot, this story has little to offer. Ages 4-8. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Children's-literature buffs and staunch fans of the Berenstains (The Big Honey Hunt, 1962, etc.) will be thrilled that the second manuscript ever produced by the famed pair--shelved due to the enormous success of the Berenstain Bears characters introduced in their first book--is finally seeing the light of day. When an eager penguin unexpectedly receives a blank journal in the mail, he begins to wish for adventures to record in it, only to be disappointed when (he thinks) they don't pan out. Readers glean from the illustrations that the penguin's wishes are, in fact, coming true even though he remains oblivious, demonstrating a tunnel vision worthy of Mr. Magoo. He imagines, for instance, that he spies a giant eye staring at him and quickly concludes that it is not an eye at all, but a piece of rock or a snail. The pictures reveal that the eye really does belong to a whale that swallows the penguin and sends him barreling out of his spout, all with the penguin none the wiser. After a series of such misadventures, the penguin makes his first journal entry: "NOTHING HAPPENED HERE TODAY." The counterpoint between text and illustrated subtext is amusing, but the rhymed verse demonstrates a tin ear: "Not bad! Not bad! / It is the best yet. / How much more dangerous / can you get?" Sadly, while the concept is clever, the unwieldy, often awkward verse ensures that this effort will place a distant second to the many tales featuring those Bears. (Picture book. 4-8)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
