Review by Booklist Review
K-Gr. 3. With evocative watercolor-and-ink images, this beautiful picture-book tribute to female emperor penguins plunges children into the harsh icy landscape and frigid waters of Antarctica, home to the penguins. The understated, lyrical text follows a young mother penguin as she lays her first egg and then, leaving her mate to tend it, joins the other females as they travel for five days to reach the pack ice and food. Once there, she swims day after day, swallowing her fill of fish and watching for dangerous seals and hunters. In all, she travels 930 miles on a zigzag course until the beginning of August, when instinct tells her it's time to return to her mate and the egg's hatching. A familiar author of nonfiction science series books presents facts in a different way in this excellent nature narrative, which is respectful, unsentimental, and rich in detail. Marks' softly colored art is a perfect compliment. A page of back matter provides additional information, including a bibliography, a list of Web sites, and an author's note about her Antarctic explorations. --Julie Cummins Copyright 2005 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 2-A simple, lyrical text follows the fortunes of an Emperor penguin from laying her first egg through her epic journey to open sea seeking food and culminating in her timely return with a belly full to regurgitate for her newly hatched chick. The whole is perfectly accompanied by Marks's luminous blue-toned watercolors, emphasizing the vast distances, the harsh weather, and the dangers lurking in the sea off the ice shelf of Antarctica. The book is similar in scope to Brenda Z. Guiberson's handsome The Emperor Lays an Egg (Holt, 2001), which focuses on the chick, and Martin Jenkins's simpler, attractive The Emperor's Egg (Candlewick, 1999), which highlights the male's long vigil. Team Markle's book with either (or both) of the above, and toss Judy Sierra's rollicking Antarctic Antics: A Book of Penguin Poems (Harcourt, 1998) into the mix for a nifty unit on Emperor penguins.-Patricia Manning, formerly at Eastchester Public Library, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
(Preschool, Primary) Markle's simple account follows a first-time mother emperor penguin as she leaves her newly laid egg in the care of her mate and joins a band of females traveling across the ice for many weeks of feeding before they make the return trip to feed and care for their offspring. The short chunks of text have the look of poetry and are both economical and richly descriptive, drawing on Markle's own first-hand observations in Antarctica: ""Day after day -- five days in all -- / the young female / and the other emperors plod and scoot / across the sea ice. / Then, finally, they reach the pack ice, / a patchwork quilt of milk-white chunks / stitched together by seams of blue-black water."" Beautiful watercolor scenes spread across the pages to follow the penguins on their journey. Two enemies -- a stinging, swirling snowstorm and a hungry leopard seal -- demonstrate the dangers of the long trek, which finally brings the mothers, stomachs swollen with their horde of krill and fish, back to the nesting ground and their newly hatched chicks. While often recounted in children's books, the emperor penguin's life cycle is fresh and compelling in this exquisitely crafted view of the mother's arduous trek. The book concludes with an author's note, a reading list of children's books, and a list of websites. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Accounts of how male Emperor penguins stand still for weeks to incubate their eggs while the females go off after food are easy to find on library shelves, but it's the male who usually gets most of the attention. Here, Markle follows a female from the nursery, over 50 miles of rugged Antarctic ice to open water and then deep into the sea, braving leopard seals and other dangers in a sustained effort to stockpile nourishment for the hungry chick that will, if all has gone well, be waiting on her return. Marks illustrates the journey with big moonlit, watercolor-on-wet-paper scenes that really bring out both the beauty and the harshness of the Antarctic winter; Markle describes the trek in simple, non-anthropomorphic language, then closes with additional facts, and leads to more. Sentimental title aside, this is sure to keep young nature lovers rapt, and carries added value for its unusual focus. (Picture book/nonfiction. 6-8) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
