The Little Penguin by Kip Noschese, Margo Gates
Published by Lerner Publications (Tm) on August 1, 2019
ISBN: 1541558677
Pages: 16
Genres: Animals
Format: Picture Book Fiction
Goodreads

This easy reader book is part of a series by Lerner showcasing animal habitats.  It meets all the criteria for beginner readers with two simple sentences in large print per page.  The story sequence is that the little penguin sees the snow then says “Let’s play in the snow”, which is repeated for ice, water and then a nap with Dad penguin.  The vocabulary promotes success in basic identifying words and the nap at the end adds humor.  The illustrations by Kip Noshese consist mainly of the penguin planted into the landscape of lines and mountains in the background.  All the colors are white with a blue tint and gray, which are not distracting from the text, but are not that exciting either.  The layout includes a table of contents which consists of the story, and the back page matter.  The last page provides visual clues of specific words and then an index of where various words such as:  Dad, friends, huddle, ice, jump are located in the book by page number.  Useful for school libraries and easy reader sections.

Reviewed by Sheila Dube, Youth Services, Springvale Public Library