Recipe for a Pacific NW heat wave:
1. Iced tea with honey, lemon, and spearmint
2. MR. POPPER'S PENGUINS read aloud in the shade
3. An enthusiastic and pig-tailed penguin aficionado armed with non-fiction books for cross-checking the tall tale facts
Penguins mate for life, you know. Maybe Mama Popper knew something when she refused to ever scold Papa Popper, but respectfully asked questions such as, "Papa, what shall we do about [this or that]?"
Richard Atwater was a newspaper columnist and Classics professor at University of Chicago. When he became seriously ill while writing MR.POPPER'S PENGUINS, his wife stepped up to finish one of the most beloved children's books of all time. It's a favorite here, and not just because those adorable Adélie penguins, Captain Cook and Greta, have 12 babies.
Read to your dearies and call Mama!
11 comments:
It was nice to see they shared the billing on the cover of the book. Yoga away, and call your mama.
That is one of our all time favorites. Well, next to the Betsy, Tacy and Tibs series! Wish I was sitting under the (apple?) tree with you.
I've got a penguin story for ya. This penguinologist guy was delivering 12 penguins to the Detroit Zoo. They were all traveling in a refrigerated motorcoach which sadly broke down and began to overheat.
Worried about the welfare of his brood, the penguinologist flagged down the first refrigerated truck that passed. He asked the driver if he could please take his penguins to the zoo. The driver agreed. The penguin keeper was overjoyed and paid the driver a tidy sum.
The next day the penguinologist happened to be walking the streets of Ann Arbor when he was startled to see his brood of penguins waddling towards him, following that truck driver on foot.
"I thought I told you to take these penguins to the zoo!" the penguin keeper chastized the other fellow.
The truck driver responded, "We did go to the zoo. And we had a lovely time. Now we're going to the Big House to watch the Wolverines."
I also love Mr Popper's Penguins, and I am charmed by the thought of sitting in the shade with a lovely young lass and a pitcher of iced tea. But I am swooning at the mention of the Betsy, Tacy, and Tibs series. The Maud Hart Lovelace books were Evangeline's absolute obsession for many years of her childhood. She still has all the books in her bedroom, and will occasionally pull one out to peruse before she falls asleep.
We are taking our granddaughter to the big bookstore tomorrow, and I will look for this one!
PEnguins are wonderful and fascinating. One of my favorite movies is "La Marche de l'Empereur" partly because Ashley and I saw the documentary together. Alison can't watch it because she gets too upset when a few of the babies die. She has always been a bird lover. I have to say that those thunderstorms were strangely beautiful and have cleared the air.
This sounds like some great family reading! Off to the library site to place an order...
When I was in college a hundred years ago, this was the favorite of one of the professors. Because I didn't care too much for her, my attitude toward Mr. Popper's Penguins was a bit jaded. Perhaps I need to read it again.
You do a good job of coordinating your posts with Vicki's. LOL
Your iced concoction sounds divine.
Mr. Poppers Penguins has been around for eons because it that book when I was in 3rd grade and I'm 52 now!
I might have to look that book up and read it to my son.
I loved March of the Penguins, it was an excellent movie and I thought it was cute.
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