Penguin Huddle: A warm and cosy read for 3-7 year olds, perfect for families to huddle up with, by the award-winning author of I Am Rebel

Great Gift

Lovely story used in my reception class learning about penguins

Lovely story bought as a present .

This is such a brilliant and funny story with such amazing illustrations! The penguins spend their days in the South Pole enjoying doing various activities like ice skating and fishing, and then spend the nights in a penguin huddle. But one night when the wind is extra strong, the group get frozen in their huddle and can’t separate themselves. Little Pipsqueak, the smallest of the penguins in the huddle has an idea of how they can get free, and the group ask for help from their neighbouring animals. But it’s soon clear that they will need more than just a few pushes and pulls to break the ice, and the penguins will have to go on a long journey to find some help to get free. ‘Penguin Huddle’ in hardback is a bit wider than A4 in size and is filled with thick glossy pages of text and some really brilliant and funny illustrations. I love this story though I had no idea it would take the penguins on a journey out of the South Pole and to a city. I love what happens though as they seek out help from various animals to help separate them from their squished huddle. I don’t want to give away what happens, but the story is brilliant and the illustrations really add to this showing so many wonderful and funny details throughout! I really love the pictures in this book and it’s kept me and my family looking at this book for ages, just to discover all the clever details in each picture. There are so many different animals the penguins come across (spot the polar bear, for example, which is clearly on holiday!), and I like how we later see all of the different animals in the city and so many fun details like what all the animals are doing, the signs you can see and read and all the various animals that you see joining the huddle as they all try to help the penguins get free. The illustrations alone will keep you entertained for ages as you can spend a very long time soaking up all the details of each page and I just love books like this. The end pages of the book on the inside front and back covers have some additional images of the penguins getting up to all sorts of activities too which is also fun to see. The story has a lovely ending, one that is sweet, and I love the last double page with the picture of all the animals on it and what they are doing. The story is brilliant, and something I didn’t expect, which is good as I thought the story would only take place in the South Pole, but this is such a fun book and so entertaining and funny throughout, and I’m sure plenty of children will enjoy reading this again and again and looking over and over at all the images and the details too! -Thanks to Walker Books for a free copy.

This is a funny and also really sweet story about penguins. The illustrations are amazing and really great and show such detail and humour. The penguins are seen fishing, skating, juggling snowballs, sleighing down the snow and just having a great time. When night time comes they all huddle together to keep warm. One one particular night it was very windy and this caused more snow to fall on them than usual and they they got stuck together and froze into a solid ball. They were all stuck together like a giant lollipop. Pipsqueak was the smallest of the group and he suggested seeking help. They asked hairs, walruses and even got on the back of a whale, travelled on Albatrose Airways with the help of a group of Albatrose birds. They eventually reached dry land and made their way into the city. After many adventures (and beautiful illustrations to show us exactly what happened there), the Iced Lollipop of Penguins. They soon thawed out and were eventually all separated and no longer huddled together. Everyone was happy except Pipsqueak as he enjoyed them being huddled and close together. So, they all decided to make a promise that they would always huddle together no matter what! I received this book directly from the Publishers for review purposes.

As would really happen, Montgomery's penguins do huddle together to keep warm during their cold, cold nights on the ice. But unlike in real life (we think!), these penguins... get stuck together!! They travel far and wide (together of course) to try to find a way to separate themselves - can they possibly do it or will they be stuck like this forever? We thought the answer was kinda obvious, but sure, it took the length of time of a picture book for the answer to be found, with a few new friends made along the way, and a cute ending to arrive at. My son and I preferred the collaborators' last, Ten Delicious Teachers, which really was a devilish joy, this one is sweet with some adorable penguins and a nice lesson about family (and hugs). Love Warburton's animals (and little Pipsqueak's bobble hat!), and hope to see the writer and illustrator bring us more picture books shortly. For ages 2-6. With thanks to Walker Books for providing a sample reading copy.

11/10 for the artwork! The beautiful, detailed illustrations are so much fun as the penguins go on an adventure to a New York-esque animal city. I appreciated all the brilliantly creative, imaginative and amusing details of how animals fulfill their city jobs, like the Magpie Jewellery shop and the dung beetles who make bowling balls for the bowling alley. :) The story is a little quirky, about a group of penguins that accidentally get frozen-solid together, and don't know how to break apart from the frozen huddle. What we really liked is that the story has a satisfying, sweet ending that leaves you with a smile. The writing style is non-rhyming, and I'd say the story is a medium-length-read rather than a super quick read, mostly because we wanted to spend time taking in all the great pictures. I've read a lot of Children's books and this is certainly one of the better ones. A fun, enjoyable read for children and adult readers alike. - With thanks to the publisher for the reading copy.