Take Turns, Penguin!

by Jeanne Willis

On Penguin's first day of play school, he won't share the slide with others until Crocodile teaches him a lesson.

Hardcover

Published January 1, 2000

About the author

Jeanne Willis was born in St Albans and trained as an advertising copywriter at Watford College. She worked for various agencies creating press adverts and TV, cinema and radio commercials. She is now a full-time writer and has published over 80 books. Her hobbies include gardening, reading (non-fiction), natural history and collecting caterpillars. Jeanne has also worked on scripts for TV, including POLLY POCKET and THE SLOW NORRIS, and a pilot TV series for DR XARGLE. She lives in North London with her husband and two children.

Reviews

[James · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not a fan. Disappointing that the teacher literally says she's too busy to watch the kids and intervene with this issue that gets out of hand for kindergarten or preschool age animal kids to handle, but it does pose the question of what to do when such a situation occurs.

Is the message that it's okay for kids to devolve into a Lord of the Flies mentality and literally eat the problematic penguin?

Some may say the penguin deserved it, but I dislike that attitude because it is the same type of logic that promotes ideas like women are asking to get raped.

Thankfully the penguin was regurgitated and did learn his lesson, but it was a harsh story and none of us really understood what the point of the book was. Adults will disappoint you and you need to take it upon yourself to punish others through physical harm? As an educator I can't stand by thay message.

My son actively disliked the story. Admittedly I laughed because it was so absurd in how dark a turn the story took. I did peek ahead to make sure it ended well once I saw the direction it was going.