January 20th is National Penguin Awareness Day. Check out these great books to learn more about these amazing birds.  

Non-Fiction 

Penguin: Habitats, Life Cycles, Food Chains, Threats by Keith Reid

Describes the life cycle of the penguin, including its birth process, natural habitat, and passage into adulthood.

Penguins by David Salomon

Penguin lovers and young nonfiction fans will enjoy following one penguin couple through their efforts to raise a family of chicks in this engaging Step into Reading Science Reader. Did you know that penguins have feathers but don’t fly? Or that their eggs are guarded by the daddy penguin? Or that they dive in the ocean for their food? Discover these facts and more, along with brilliant photographs of chinstrap penguins in Antarctica, in this captivating nonfiction leveled reader.

Penguins! by Wayne Lynch

Describes the physical characteristics, habits, and natural environment of these flightless sea birds, which are found only in the southern hemisphere.

Baby Penguin’s First Waddles by Ben Richmond

What happens after a baby penguin emerges from her egg? Follow her journey and find out! Meet a penguin chick and see how she grows. Developed in tandem with the American Museum of Natural History, and featuring stunning photography in the penguin’s Antarctic home, this nonfiction picture book captures the first few months of a baby penguin’s life and her transformation into adulthood. With fun and engaging text, Baby Penguin’s First Waddles is sure to delight animal-loving kids.

Emperor Penguins by Michael Molnar

Easy-to-understand text and spectacular photographs show Emperor Penguins at each stage of their life cycle. Other features include food web diagrams, labeled photographs, timeline of the life cycle, migration and location maps, case studies, and much more.

A Baby Penguin Story by Martha E. H. Rustad

Waddle, waddle, belly slide. Penguin chicks go for an icy ride. What’s it like for penguin chicks to grow up? Readers learn about baby penguins through color photos and simple text.

 

A Rookery of Penguins by Richard and Louise Spilsbury

What are penguins? What is a rookery? Learn that and more with this fun and engaging book.

Penguins by Jill Esbaum

Explains how Emperor penguins manage to live, eat, and raise their young in an extremely cold environment.

A Penguin named Patience: a Hurricane Katrina Rescue Story by Suzanne Lewis 

Patience is a South African penguin living at New Orleans’s Audubon Aquarium of the Americas. When the Aquarium is severely damaged during Hurricane Katrina, many animals are put in peril, including Patience and the other penguins. They must leave their home, and their penguin keeper, until it is restored.

Penguins Can’t Fly by Susan H. Gray.

Offers answers to their most compelling questions about that flightless bird. Age-appropriate explanations and appealing photos. Additional text features help students locate information and learn new words. 

Penguins by Lucia Raatma

Readers will learn about penguin habitats in the Southern Hemisphere, what the birds eat, how they survive, and who watches over the penguin eggs before they hatch.

Penguins are Cool! by Connie and Peter Roop

What birds have wings but can’t fly? Penguins! Instead, these adorable animals use their flippers to swim in the deep, cold water.  Meet the different species, from the Little Blue to the Emperor, and find out about their feathers, their coloring, and their habitat-as well as how they build their nests and raise their young. By the end, kids will all agree: penguins are really cool!

Fiction 

Penguins by Liz Pichon

Penguins at the zoo have an exciting afternoon when one finds a camera left behind by a visitor.

365 Penguins by Jean-Luc Fromental and Joëlle Jolivet

When a box containing a penguin arrives anonymously on New Year’s Day, a family of four is puzzled, but as they continue to receive one penguin each day their problems–and food budget, and storage issues–are multiplied.

Little Penguins by Cynthia Rylant

During the first snowy day of winter, five little penguins bundle up and venture outside to play.

Five flying penguins by Barbara Barbieri McGrath

Five little penguins flee from a seal, flying through the water, and find themselves in an innocent game of tag.

Spy Penguins by Sam Hay 

Young penguins Jackson, also known as Secret Agent 00Zero, and his inventor-friend, Quigley, investigate who is stealing rare fish from the Rookeryville aquarium, hoping to prove themselves to the Frosty Bureau of Investigation.

Baby Penguins by Kari Schuetz

Developed by literacy experts for students in kindergarten through grade three, this book introduces baby penguins to young readers through leveled text and related photos.

Baby Penguins Everywhere! Melissa Guion.

When a penguin finds a hat floating by, she discovers something inside . . . baby penguins!

If You Were a Penguin by Wendell and Florence Minor

Pictures and rhyming text that explain some of the many extraordinary things penguins can do. Includes facts about penguins as well as related websites.

Penguin Flies Home: A Flight School Story by Lita Judge

Penguin mastered his quest to soar with the eagles in Flight School—now he’s heading home to teach his friends in this sweet and inspiring stand-alone companion story!

Harriet Gets Carried Away by Jessie Sima

While shopping with her two dads for supplies for her birthday party, Harriet, who is wearing a penguin costume, is carried away by a waddle of penguins and must hatch a plan in order to get herself back to the store in the city.

The Penguin Lady by Carol A. Cole

Penelope Parker lives with penguins from all over the Southern Hemisphere. Do the penguin antics prove too much for her to handle? Children count and then compare and contrast ten different penguin species as they learn geography. 

And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell

At New York City’s Central Park Zoo, two male penguins fall in love and start a family by taking turns sitting on an abandoned egg until it hatches.

Penguin Puzzle by Judith Bauer Stamper 

Ms. Frizzle whisks her students away on a ‘cool’ trip to Antarctica, where they learn all about the South Pole and come face to face with playful penguins and colossal icebergs. When the kids are magically changed into real penguins, they need Ms. Frizzle’s help to solve their penguin puzzle.