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Mr. Popper's Penguins

Richard Atwater,

Florence Atwater

Start date: February 1, 2018

Finish date: February 28, 2018

Discussion: Children's Classics Buddy Reads

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Aug 24, 2017 Manybooks rated it it was ok

Shelves: childrens-literature, penguins-are-not-arctic-creatures, book-reviews

To tell the truth, I never did read Richard and Florence Atwater's 1939 Newbery Honour winning novel Mr. Popper's Penguins as a child, and while I have in fact mildly enjoyed much if not most of the Atwaters' presented text as a sweet and humour-full animal/people interaction tale, and can also understand why and how it is considered a classic and much beloved by many, as an older adult reading Mr. Popper's Penguins for the very first time, the ending, with the penguins being sent to the Arctic To tell the truth, I never did read Richard and Florence Atwater's 1939 Newbery Honour winning novel Mr. Popper's Penguins as a child, and while I have in fact mildly enjoyed much if not most of the Atwaters' presented text as a sweet and humour-full animal/people interaction tale, and can also understand why and how it is considered a classic and much beloved by many, as an older adult reading Mr. Popper's Penguins for the very first time, the ending, with the penguins being sent to the Arctic just absolutely and totally rubs me the wrong way, and indeed, to the point that my emerging enjoyment of much of Mr. Popper's Penguins (even with its datedness and issues of gender stratification) has sadly been completely rendered pretty much null and void due to this.

For let's face it, penguins are NOT Arctic but Antarctic animals and the idea of Mr. Popper's penguins being sent to the Arctic is basically a case of having an invasive animal species artificially and deliberately transplanted into the Arctic, into a cold environs, yes, but still into an environment that for all intents and purposes is not the penguins' home and native land (and where they, where the penguins might very well and even likely negatively interfere with native Arctic bird species like dovekies, puffins, razorbills and the like). And while in 1938/1939, the problems, the potential and serious consequences of invasive animal (and plant species) were of course not yet a commonly considered issue and as such a scenario to be avoided, I personally just have not been able to read Mr. Popper's Penguins without my late 20th and early 21st century eyes, without my ever increasing annoyance at the havoc invasive species have caused and are still causing to and for ecosystems around the world to be able to read and appreciate Mr. Popper's Penguins and especially with its ending as simply a fun and engaging classic animal themed tale (because I just do NOT even remotely understand why Admiral Drake and by extension Mr. Popper could not have taken the Penguins back to the Southern Hemisphere, to the Antarctic, or to the southern reaches of South America, to an area where penguins are meant to live, are endemic and native). And thus, albeit I do feel a bit guilty and will even apologise to readers who love and adore Mr. Popper's Penguins, only two stars for me, as the ending, as where the penguins end up being sent in Mr. Popper's Penguins, it really does make me continuously cringe on a biological and ecological level, the fun and humour, the gentle entertainment of the story quite majorly and wholly, utterly notwithstanding (and well, that Mrs. Popper is seemingly absolutely fine with her husband basically being gone for years is also a bit strange, but actually, while this does somewhat bother me, it does not chafe even remotely as much as the fact that the penguins are being sent to the North, to the Arctic). ...more

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