The Engleburt Stories: North to the Tropics

Theater director Schechner and his fourth-grade son collaborated on this novel about the adventures of an anthropomorphic penguin who leaves Antarctica to establish a penguin colony in the Bahamas. Engleburt encounters both friends and obstacles along the way: an amiable blue whale; humans who take him in at a Club Med resort; the eruption of Martinique's Mt. Pelee; and a group of carrier pigeons who lead other penguins to him and help him realize his dream. While the imagination and initiative of a nine-year-old author are to be commended, this work unfortunately betrays his inexperience. The text is clumsy and amateurish and the black-and-white illustrations crudely drawn; it seems unlikely to hold the attention of the middle readers for whom it is intended. Ages 6-11. (October)