Every Penguin in the World: A Quest to See Them All

by Charles Bergman

A husband and wife travel the globe to see all 18 penguin species in this “celebration of these delightful birds and a call for their conversation” that offers “joy, love, and hope for penguins and the world” (Dr. Jane Goodall).

Every Penguin in the World tracks author-photographer Charles Bergman’s forays around the southern hemisphere—from the Galapagos to South Africa to the Antarctic—in his quest to see all 18 species of penguins in the world. The sections of the book are organized around themes of adventure, science and conservation, and pilgrimage—in which stories of each penguin species will be touched upon.

This endearing and thought-provoking book beautifully combines narrative and photography to capture the plight and the experience of penguins worldwide. The author and his wife developed a passion after seeing their first penguin species and have since spent years traveling far and wide to see each variety of penguin in its natural habitat.
 
Both a love letter and a call to action, Every Penguin in the World is a joyful ode to adventure, conservation, and the beautiful penguins that capture our hearts.

“It's SO good! [...] Chuck Bergman’s writing, photography, and vulnerability is so kick-ass!”
—Brené Brown, New York Times –bestselling author of Dare to Lead

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel, Animals, Birds, Nature, Science

224 pages, Hardcover

First published June 7, 2020

About the author

A writer and photographer, Charles Bergman has lived nearly his whole life in the Pacific Northwest. He’s a long-time teacher of English at Pacific Lutheran University. He’s the author of four books, including Wild Echoes: Encounters with the Most Endangered Animals in North America. He’s written extensively on wildlife and animals in national magazines, including Smithsonian, Audubon and Natural History and National Geographic. His article on wildlife trafficking in Latin America was the cover story in Smithsonian. His work springs from a wild dedication to the Earth and its creatures. His writing and photography have won several awards, including the Washington State Book Award, Southwest Book Award, Ben Franklin Book Award, and he was a PEN USA Literary Award finalist. He has a particular love for the Southern Hemisphere and has completed two Fulbright Fellowships, in Mexico and Ecuador. He has taught study tours in Antarctica six times.

Reviews

[Wanda Pedersen · Rating 4 out of 5]

It seems appropriate that I finished reading this book on World Penguin Day. The author and his wife traveled to see all 18 species of penguins, a journey that I have been on for many years. Unfortunately, I won't be completing my quest, as I think the Emperor penguin trip is beyond my capabilities now. As the author says, don't wait to fulfill your goals, do it now. I'm so glad I did Antarctic travel when I was in my 40s-–the younger you are when you go there, the more fun you will have. I've logged 13 species of penguin and have fabulous memories of birds and travel to show for it.

The photos in this volume are spectacular. I really enjoyed his adventure stories too, relating to some of them very strongly, particularly the feeling of communion with nature that I feel when I am in a penguin colony. I'm told by my travel companions that my face glows in those situations. Who knows what the future will bring, for us or for penguins?

In the meantime, here are some photos of my own penguin adventures.


African penguins, South Africa


King penguins, Chile


Me in a King penguin colony on South Georgia island


Me again, seeing Humbolt penguins for the first time in Chile


Yellow eyed penguin, New Zealand

Cross posted at my blog:

https://wanda-thenextfifty.blogspot.c...

[North of Boston · Rating 2 out of 5]

The photographs are great, but not in synch with the text. The text might be describing the author's travels to one place, but the pictures show penguins from another location. Also, the book format is fairly small, which does not do justice to the photographs. Sometimes the author begins a story, but drops it and picks it up again a few pages later. Overall, I found the text rather cloying, although it is interspersed with some information from other penguin researchers. It reads more like a personal travel journal than a published book meant for others. The book in some ways reminded me of the photobooks with text that can be created from our own digital pictures and ordered through various services.

[heb · Rating 3 out of 5]

the real friends were the penguins we met along the way

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars for the text; 5 stars for the photos.
This is a joyful little book about one couple's quest to see all 18 species of penguins. I enjoyed the environmental and existential focus, as well as the occasional references to Renaissance literature (the author is an English lit prof), though I found the structure too aimless. I would've appreciated a more chronological approach, with more about each species of penguin and less about the author's personal journey (some is good, but the balance felt off). The photos, though, are stunning, and I loved just paging through the book to take them in. Also, the title kept running through my head to the tune of Air Supply's "Every Woman in the World"--can't decide if that's a plus or minus.

Edited to add this note, mostly for myself: One of Bergman's most powerful insights (and what I hope to remember) was that science's aversion to anthropomorphizing animals may actually harm conservation efforts--when we humanize something, humans tend to care about it more, not less.

[Kyrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the pictures (just wished they'd been more synced to the text). The story was good, and got better as the author got more into how the penguin quest and his own life tied together.

[Paula · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every Penguin in the World by Charles Bergman may not have every penguin that exists but it sure has almost all of them. Besides the amazing photographs, it has a wonderful message that even a child understands. I read this allowing my grandchildren to explore the photographs which they loved! The realized by the end that conservation is vital for these wonderful birds to thrive. They also wanted to know what was going to be done to help the penguins.

My copy is a digital ARC but members of the family are pushing for hard copy of this book to be bought. It is the kind that adults and children can look through many times. Of course, the kids had favorites: especially ones of parents with offspring and the fairy penguins. As for the text it was easily readable for adults. Perhaps more than the elementary children here wanted to read but very interesting to me.

I guess this would be what we called a coffee table book, that one would pick up to enjoy any time that they had a few minutes. It is certainly one that would be picked up often.

An ARC of the book was given to me by the publisher through Net Galley which I voluntarily chose to read and reviewed. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

[Kyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pros:
Great photos
Learned about penguins

Cons:
Written to be narrative, but comes off boring. Penguins are the star, not you
Not all pictures of penguins, and many pictures not the type of penguin being talked about
Not enough penguin facts

[Dubi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was just in Antarctica last month, logged into NetGalley when I came back to look for a new read, first thing I see, Every Penguin in the World. Well, you can't go to Antarctica and not fall in love with penguins after seeing them in their natural habitat -- not just their Chaplinesque slapstick on land but their beautiful and amazing Esther Williams synchronized swimming in the water, where they truly transform from the ridiculous to the sublime.

Charles Bergman's extended photo essay on penguins goes beyond Antarctica to visit every penguin species that exists across the world, almost but not quite exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. He photographs and writes about the penguins, of course, with beauty and passion, and he also writes about his and his wife's personal journey, tells tales about their travels, and discusses the fate of penguins in a changing world.

Being primarily a photographer, Bergman's prose is not perfect -- particularly a tendency toward repetition. But his clear fondness for his subject and the indelible impact his quest has had on his life and his wife's are what is really important here, so still an enthusiastic five stars from me -- obviously not an objective review because I just has the same epiphianic experience with the Adelies, Gentoo and Chinnies that I visited, but really, how can you not love penguins?

They are hilarious, they are more intelligent than you ever imagined, they are so noisy and noisome that you'd never want them living in your backyard, they are the living embodiment of everything that is so awe-inspiring about the natural world and everything that we unfortunately do to endanger that world. And when you see them in open water, it's a whole new dimension.

Bergman does a great job of capturing all that and much much more in both his photos and words. Do yourself a favor, get a copy of this book, read it, don't just look at the pictures, but then keep it somewhere handy where you can go back and look at the pictures whenever the mood strikes you. And then book yourself on an expedition ship crossing the Drake Passage and see them for yourself in their own backyard.

[Sid Groeneman · Rating 4 out of 5]

No one loves penguins more than Charles Bergman. If you too love penguins, as I do, or are an incurable romantic, as I am not, you will enjoy "Every Penguin in the World." I learned of this book from a Smithsonian Associates Zoom lecture given last month by Bergman to promote it. This slim volume--194 pages, about half of which are exquisite photos Bergman took--recounts the adventures that Bergman and his wife Susan experience during their quest to view all 18 penguin species in the wild. Their journeys took them to some of the most remote and intimidating places on the planet including the Antarctic interior (to visit emperor penguins) and Tristan de Cunha in the southern Atlantic (to see Northern Rockhoppers). The account describes the natural splendor of the wildlife they experienced as well as their physical struggles and a serious health condition that plagued Charles--challenges they overcame. There is also an intense spiritual dimension to their journey, which Bergman interweaves in the narrative through his encounters with penguins and other wildlife, a sense that these animals were communicating something deeply personal to him from which he drew strength.

The book could have been better organized, as fragments of their various travels are broken into separate chapters, and the photos are not in sync with the narrative. I found that to be distracting at times, but a minor annoyance at most.

Most readers will not know that the Bergmans are not the first to succeed in visiting all of the world's penguin species in their natural habitats. A few years ago, Clint and Missy Kelly concluded their own series of journeys to see and photograph all 18 species, which they document in a gorgeous coffee table size book titled "In Pursuit of All the World's Penguins: A Southern Hemisphere Odyssey." I count myself among the fortunate few to have obtained a copy of this very limited edition publication.

[Bryanna Plog · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let penguins and Dr. Bergman bring some joy into your life! With exceptional photos, the book is gorgeous to flip through, but the narrative is worth a detailed read. I liked how it was organized by "adventure," "Science/Conservation," and "Pilgrimage," as it becomes more a story about the author and his wife's quest to see all the species of penguins in the world. Sometimes I worried the journey was a little too much about checking the boxes of seeing all the species, but the author's enthusiasm for wildlife and conservation is readily apparent. Having been lucky enough to been to many of the places in the book myself, it also brought back some happy travel memories.

This book should inspire us to think about how we care for our world's vulnerable creatures and the places they call home. For Dr. Bergman, seeing the world's penguin species was a quest that brought him to amazing places around our world--while few people may be privileged enough to travel to all the places the author has visited, let his travels and focus on conservation inspire us all on our own quests. And flip to those photos of adorable penguins whenever you're having a bad day...

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was surprised at how much I liked this book. I’m not sure what I’d been expecting, but I learned so much about penguins that it made me like the flightless birds even more. Bergman wrote it in such a way that I felt like I was right there with him seeing what he was seeing. I didn’t know many of the species are endangered and may be on the brink of extinction. They live in such remote places, you don’t think there could be any real dangers for them, but just like everywhere else in the world, they are threatened by fishing pressure, invasive species, habitat loss, and pollution. Bergman and his wife endured many hardships to see all 18 species, and experienced incredible adventures that changed them. It’s divided into three main sections: adventure, science and extreme conservation, and pilgrimage. Adventure runs throughout the book, but this section covers a particular trip in New Zealand that turned out to be quite harrowing. Science and extreme conservation will provide you with greater knowledge about the penguins’ plight and what’s being done to save them. Finally, the pilgrimage examines the transformation Bergman experienced during his quest. The photography is beautiful, and readers will walk away with a greater appreciation of these amazing, resilient, and intelligent birds. I received an ARC for review.

[Dr. Byron Ernest · Rating 5 out of 5]

Besides being in the non-fiction genre, this book could be categorized as a wildlife, leadership, global community building, travel, survivalist, and motivational literary work. This book encompasses all those things. Charles Bergman, traveled the world to see all 18 penguin species in their natural habitats. I did not even know there were 18 different species of penguins until I read this book. This book is an incredible visual and written chronicle of the 20-year-long journey it took the author to see all 18 species. He artfully used storytelling and photography to take the reader into the wilderness, from the Galapagos to South Africa and Antarctica, to teach us about these beautiful creatures. This book enables us to see and learn about an animal most might never see in the wild. It it important, however, for us to understand all these penguins, the environments in which we live, and our responsibility in the global community for their wellbeing.

[Suzanne Mccandless · Rating 5 out of 5]

Charles Bergman and his wife, Susan, decided to see every specie of penguin in the world. At the beginning of their search that meant 17 species, but one specie split during their quest. The Rockhopper is now the Southern Rockhopper and the Northern Rockhopper. Of course, as the author explains species may continue to split as scientists continue to define what a specie is and also as more is learned about DNA. No matter, though, as regards to this book. The reader is taken on some really wild and exciting adventures learning much about penguins and other wildlife. The author also manages to instill a love a nature and a desire to better the planet in the reader. An excellent book. But it could do with an index. I had to make my own to find photos of the birds.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m pretty sure this book doesn’t feature every single penguin in the whole wide world – you’d need more than just one book for that – but there are certainly a lot of penguins here! If you are interested in penguins, or if you’re just feeling down and want to look at pictures of penguins and read about penguins, then this is the book for you. Bergman’s narrative is super-enjoyable to read: it’s part travelogue, part journalism, part science writing but all penguins, all the time. And once you start reading about one sort of penguin, you just want to go through and read everything about all the penguins. All of them. Every penguin in the world!

[Douglass Gaking · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charles Bergman and his wife Susan set out to see every species of penguin in the world. They visited every continent in the Southern Hemisphere and some of the most remote locations in the world. Their story is amazing. The writing isn't the greatest, but it has some strong moments. The photos, almost all taken by Bergman, are wonderful. This is a great book for anyone who enjoys birding, penguins, nature, or exploration. And it is an inspirational story that reminds us both of the impact we have on nature and the impact that nature has on us.

[Wanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Penguin Love

This was a wonderful book about the travels the author undertook to see all the different species of penguins. He has some great photos and talks about the different adventures he went thru and how seeing these amazing creatures effected him. He lists a lot of resources where you can learn more about birds the environment and how to help the planet. He also includes some photos and discussion about other animals and sights they encountered on their journeys.

[Kelly K · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish this wasn't as jumpy. I prefer my non-fiction to be in chronological order but the stories were interesting enough to be splattered about. There was a bit of repetition, mostly about how everyone loves penguins yet they are endangered. A fun quest nonetheless. I'd be happy just to see one kind of penguin in the wild.

[Marianne McKiernan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful stories of travel to see penguins, pilgrimages, and the importance of conservation of species, including krill. (Don’t buy products that contain krill or krill oil; they are contributing to overfishing, illegal fishing and the decline of whales and penguins!) Also fantastic photographs by the author.

[Kevin Albin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely book, which I bought after hearing the author on a podcast. Humbly and openly written, it captures the beauty of an animal that endures the harshness of extreme life, probably to be defeated by what we have done to this world. We have been distracted and lost our connection with nature, which we urgently need to find again and make amends. Books like this one call for exactly that.

[Vanessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now who doesn't love a penguin? so when Every Penguin in the World by Charles Bergman came out I had to have this. This book is so lovely and with great photo's throughout I loved this book but it did need some more photo's of baby penguins. A very enjoyable book.

[Carrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The photos and penguin information in this book are a 5! The storyline and photo order seemed hard to follow for me. The photos seemed a little random and usually did not line up with the information on the page.

Overall, I still love that this book exists and the photos are gorgeous!

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing photos. Touching and engaging narrative of the author’s spiritual journey to see all 18 species of penguins in the world. 🐧 I really loved this.

[Kenny Tymick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing, but needed more baby penguins.

[Diane Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful quest to want to see all 18 penguin species and then actually doing it. A delightful read with exquisite photographs.

[Sandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The pictures were great but I was expecting the story of the couple’s trips to see all of the penguin species and that wasn’t what I got.

[Charles Bergman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb and deeply moving.

[Dan Mingo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Different from things I usually read, but enjoyable. It was intriguing to read of someones journey and their love for this animal. Lots of good information about penguins I had not known before.

[Dorothy McBride · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful photos and compelling story by Bergman.

[Kristopher Olson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very inspirational!

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inspiring and charming. The photos were way better than the anecdotes, but I still learned a lot and loved this book!