Well Done, Mommy Penguin

August 1, 2022
Where is Mommy Penguin off to? "I think she's going to get dinner," Daddy Penguin explains to his wide-eyed, curious chick. They both stand atop an icy peak to watch Mommy--along with a group of other penguins--as she hunts. First she must swim quickly to catch the darting fish ("swoosh / swish / swoosh"). Then she leaps back onto the ice ("whoosh / whoosh / whoosh") and climbs a slippery slope ("cu-crunch / cu-crunch / cu-crunch"). Uh-oh. She must also sneak past the sleeping seals ("tiptoe / tiptoe / tiptoe"). But one wakes up! Startled, Mommy Penguin falls all the way back into the sea. Oh dear. But Mommy Penguin perseveres--and returns with a fish and a warm hug. The book opens with the Arabic saying "Heaven is at the feet of mothers"--a fitting quote for this celebration of a parent who nourishes her child in every sense of the word. Haughton's signature blocky style works well to capture the squat, waddling seabirds. Icy blues and crisp whites saturate the chilly landscape. Playful sound effects add levity and make for a fun read-aloud, but it is Daddy Penguin's repeated calm assurance that Mommy Penguin will come back ("She sure will") that grounds and steadies the book even when Mommy is faced with a brief moment of danger. (This book was reviewed digitally.) Female empowerment and penguin parenting at its best. (Picture book. 3-6)

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October 24, 2022
No challenge is too great for the indomitable mother penguin that stars in Haughton’s latest color-saturated work, a comic tribute to motherhood’s never-ending labor. While Daddy Penguin and Little Penguin watch, Mommy Penguin navigates a bona fide obstacle course as she hunts for the family’s food—swimming, jumping ashore, and climbing a snowy hill—receiving with each success the titular refrain, “Well done, Mommy Penguin!” Meanwhile, the youth impatiently waits, repeating questions: “And she’ll be back, won’t she?” After an attempt to sneak past sleeping seals (in a fan-familiar “tiptoe/ tiptoe/ tiptoe” moment), a surprise temporarily sets the magenta and indigo bird back, but as wry narration declares, “Nothing’s going to stop Mommy Penguin,” and it’s soon mission accomplished—at least temporarily. Haughton’s bold and blocky aesthetic brightly captures the exhausting and frenetic hustle of getting food into little bellies. Ages 3–7.