cover image Pinkie Leaves Home

Pinkie Leaves Home

Peter O'Donnell. Scholastic, $13.95 (1pp) ISBN 978-0-590-45485-8

``Poor Pinkie once swam through an oil slick and lost all his feathers, so now he gets very cold and shivers and shakes.'' Thus begins the appealing tale of a bedraggled penguin who longs for warm and sunny climes. When a newspaper's travel section blows ``straight into his beak,'' the determined fellow sets out for the tropical landscape depicted. After a lengthy boat and train journey Pinkie at last finds warmth in his new environs--but he also finds that he is homesick. Garbed in a tastelessly touristy souvenir wardrobe, he returns to his friends, fully prepared to brave the elements. This bald bird--who bears a striking resemblance to the title character in Lucy Cousins's Portly's Hat --is a winning and stalwart hero, with his yellow bill, pink hide and few lone feathers. Deeply hued watercolors, enlivened through the use of wax resist, have a beguiling childlike quality. Both text and art, in fact, display a well-suited naivete that will have youngsters rooting for Pinkie's drolly diligent--albeit somewhat improbable--quest. Ages 4-7. (Apr.)