The Penguin Lessons
The Penguin Lessons, by Tom Michell
Blurb:Tom Michell is in his roaring twenties: single, free-spirited and seeking adventure. He has a plane ticket to South America, a teaching position in a prestigious Argentine boarding school, and endless summer holidays. He even has a motorbike, Che Guevara style. What he doesn't need is a pet. What he really doesn't need is a pet penguin.Set against Argentina's turbulent years following the collapse of the corrupt Perónist regime, this is the heart-warming story of Juan Salvador the penguin, rescued by Tom from an oil slick in Uruguay just days before a new term. When the bird refuses to leave Tom's side, the young teacher has no choice but to smuggle it across the border, through customs, and back to school. Whether it's as the rugby team's mascot, the housekeeper's confidant, the host at Tom's parties or the most flamboyant swimming coach in world history, Juan Salvador transforms the lives of all he meets - in particular one homesick school boy. And as for Tom, he discovers in Juan Salvador a compadre like no other...This book was really sweet in places, but I did occasionally feel my attention drifting. Tom had much the same views and concerns about modern civilisation as me and Juan Salvador was adorable and I applaud anyone who helps an animal in need. I also agree that the penguin had a better life at the school than he probably would have had in a zoo, however, I couldn't help but feel as if more could have been done to put him back in the wild. I'm no expert and I've obviously never been in that position, but it just seemed he jumped to conclusions rather quickly without proper info - and before someone points it out, they didn't have Google then, I know, but there were other ways of researching things!All in all like I said, this was a sweet book and I love true stories, but there were parts of it that were very slow going...My favourite quotes from 'The Penguin Lessons':"Dead penguins, covered in thick, cloying, suffocating oil and tar. The sight was so dreadful, so sickening and depressing, that I could only wonder at what lay ahead for any 'civilisation' that could tolerate, let alone perpetrate, such desecration."" Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -I took the road less traveled by,And that has made all the difference. ""I wanted to find my 'road less traveled by' and see where it led. I wanted to experience some of life's challenges without the security of a safety net.""How, in a world so full of astonishing beauty and priceless wonder, had humans devised so much misery, and not just for our own species?""...time moves on and new family, friends and pets jostle for position in our hearts, but the vacancy left by previous occupants never fills. We keep our loved ones alive through our memories, our conversations and our stories but we don't necessarily choose to reveal how much they really meant.""... the lives of many of them were grindingly hard and there was no room for passengers.""What seems undeniable is that if the Bank of Nature's descamisados becomes insolvent, no amount of our money will ever bail us out."
Blurb:Tom Michell is in his roaring twenties: single, free-spirited and seeking adventure. He has a plane ticket to South America, a teaching position in a prestigious Argentine boarding school, and endless summer holidays. He even has a motorbike, Che Guevara style. What he doesn't need is a pet. What he really doesn't need is a pet penguin.Set against Argentina's turbulent years following the collapse of the corrupt Perónist regime, this is the heart-warming story of Juan Salvador the penguin, rescued by Tom from an oil slick in Uruguay just days before a new term. When the bird refuses to leave Tom's side, the young teacher has no choice but to smuggle it across the border, through customs, and back to school. Whether it's as the rugby team's mascot, the housekeeper's confidant, the host at Tom's parties or the most flamboyant swimming coach in world history, Juan Salvador transforms the lives of all he meets - in particular one homesick school boy. And as for Tom, he discovers in Juan Salvador a compadre like no other...This book was really sweet in places, but I did occasionally feel my attention drifting. Tom had much the same views and concerns about modern civilisation as me and Juan Salvador was adorable and I applaud anyone who helps an animal in need. I also agree that the penguin had a better life at the school than he probably would have had in a zoo, however, I couldn't help but feel as if more could have been done to put him back in the wild. I'm no expert and I've obviously never been in that position, but it just seemed he jumped to conclusions rather quickly without proper info - and before someone points it out, they didn't have Google then, I know, but there were other ways of researching things!All in all like I said, this was a sweet book and I love true stories, but there were parts of it that were very slow going...My favourite quotes from 'The Penguin Lessons':"Dead penguins, covered in thick, cloying, suffocating oil and tar. The sight was so dreadful, so sickening and depressing, that I could only wonder at what lay ahead for any 'civilisation' that could tolerate, let alone perpetrate, such desecration."" Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -I took the road less traveled by,And that has made all the difference. ""I wanted to find my 'road less traveled by' and see where it led. I wanted to experience some of life's challenges without the security of a safety net.""How, in a world so full of astonishing beauty and priceless wonder, had humans devised so much misery, and not just for our own species?""...time moves on and new family, friends and pets jostle for position in our hearts, but the vacancy left by previous occupants never fills. We keep our loved ones alive through our memories, our conversations and our stories but we don't necessarily choose to reveal how much they really meant.""... the lives of many of them were grindingly hard and there was no room for passengers.""What seems undeniable is that if the Bank of Nature's descamisados becomes insolvent, no amount of our money will ever bail us out."
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