Read the Words to know page together first: penguin, black, wings and egg, each with its picture. Every other word in the story is either a short word to sound out or a common sight word such as the, is or you. Let your child point to each word and take their time. When one of the four taught words stops them, turn back to page 3 and its picture; for any other word, sound it out together rather than guessing from the picture. The age band is a guide, not a promise that every child is ready. Pages 22 and 23 give adults the facts and sources behind the pictures. For a longer book to read together, try Fold 2, Hello, Penguin!
The facts behind the pictures
A penguin has a dark back and head. This is the usual adult pattern, shown by the pictured emperor penguins, not a description of every chick or every kind.
The adult's front is light; the book calls the pale chest a bib, as birders call a chest patch. Some kinds also have yellow or orange patches, or crests on the head.
A penguin is a bird with wings, but penguins cannot fly in the sky. Their stiff, flattened wings are built for swimming.
Penguins flap their wings to swim, pushing through the water the way other birds push through air.
Penguins dive to find food. Dive depths and lengths differ among kinds and with conditions.
Penguins eat fish, and some penguins eat krill, like the small shrimp-like animals in this picture. The book does not say fish are their only food.
Care, food and space
Penguins breathe air. They hold their breath on a dive and come up for air.
Penguin parents keep their eggs warm against bare skin. Kinds of penguins do this in different ways: not every parent sits on a nest, and not every penguin balances its egg on its feet.
Penguins lay eggs. A chick grows inside and breaks through the shell to hatch.
Penguin parents feed their chicks, bringing food back from the sea while the chicks grow.
Some penguins stand close to keep warm, as the emperor penguins in this picture do. The book does not say that all penguins huddle.
Some penguins live in warm places. The Galapagos penguins pictured here live near the equator, where cold sea currents support their food.
Give wild penguins space. Watch from a distance, follow local wildlife rules, and do not chase or handle them.
A first book to read alone: a few short words on each page, repeated patterns, and the few hard words taught with pictures before the story starts.
- Ages
- 4–6
- Trim
- 6 × 9 in
- Pages
- 24
- Words
- 105
- Reading grade
- -0.9
See the printed pages
