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Children's Nonfiction Birds

Penguins!

The World's Coolest Birds

by (author) Wayne Lynch

Publisher
Firefly Books
Initial publish date
Sep 2016
Category
Birds
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9781770858664
    Publish Date
    Sep 2016
    List Price
    $24.95
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781770858589
    Publish Date
    Sep 2016
    List Price
    $12.95
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781552094242
    Publish Date
    Sep 1999
    List Price
    $9.95
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9781552094211
    Publish Date
    Sep 1999
    List Price
    $19.95

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Recommended Age, Grade, and Reading Levels

  • Age: 10 to 13
  • Grade: 5 to 8

Description

Renowned photographer and science writer Wayne Lynch has a passion and fascination for the members of the penguin family. A self-described "penguin addict," he has logged more than 130,000 miles to sit among hundreds, sometimes even thousands of penguins on the far-flung beaches of the Galapagos Islands, Chile, Antarctica and New Zealand. In this new edition, Lynch includes completely new photographs of these intriguing birds and reveals the effects of climate change on the habitat, life cycle and future of these resilient animals. Advances in genetic science reveals a number of new species which Lynch adds to this new edition.

This stocky little bird survives a rocky adolescence and adulthood, to experience territorial squabbles, "marriages," attacks by sea mammals and sometimes months without food as it incubates its eggs through the unrelenting winter. With lively, humorous writing and unforgettable photographs, Penguins! explores the daily lives of this feisty seabird survivor.

About the author

Wildlife photographer and science writer Dr. Wayne Lynch has dedicated almost three decades to learning everything he can about these powerful mammals. In his quest for bears, he has crawled inside the winter dens of black bears and polar bears, held squirming grizzly cubs in his arms, sailed along the coastal rainforests of British Columbia, hiked the cloud forests of the Andes Mountains in South America and ridden elephants through the jungles of Nepal and India.

In Bears, Bears, Bears for Kids, his engaging guide to the world's eight bear species, Lynch introduces us to the strange and wonderful natural histories of these magnificent wild animals.

For more than 40 years, Dr. Wayne Lynch has been writing about and photographing the wildlands of the world from the stark beauty of the Arctic and Antarctic to the lush rainforests of the tropics. Today, he is one of Canada's best-known and most widely published nature writers and wildlife photographers. His photo credits include hundreds of magazine covers, thousands of calendar shots, and tens of thousands of images published in over 80 countries. He is also the author/photographer of more than 45 books for children as well as over 20 highly acclaimed natural history books for adults including Windswept: A Passionate View of the Prairie Grasslands; Penguins of the World; Bears: Monarchs of the Northern Wilderness; A is for Arctic: Natural Wonders of a Polar World; Wild Birds Across the Prairies;Planet Arctic: Life at the Top of the World; The Great Northern Kingdom: Life in the Boreal Forest; Owls of the United States and Canada: A Complete Guide to their Biology and Behavior; Penguins: The World's Coolest Birds; Galapagos: A Traveler's Introduction; A Celebration of Prairie Birds; and Bears of the North: A Year Inside Their Worlds.In 2022, he released Wildlife of the Rockies for Kids and Loons: Treasured Symbols of the North. His books have won multiple awards and have been described as "a magical combination of words and images."

Wayne Lynch's profile page

Editorial Reviews

[Review of previous edition:] A lively first-person narrative, peppered with journal excerpts, personal observations and anecdotes.

Horn Book Guide

Lynch's passion and fascination for penguins helps to inform readers about the effects of climate change on habitat, life cycle, and what might happen in the future for these marvelous creatures. Useful for report writing but also a "good read." Parts of the book include Table of Contents, map of penguins of the world showing their habitat locations by numbered pictures of twenty species. Index. Info about the author.

Puget Sound Council for the Review of Children's and Young Adult Literature

[Review of previous edition:] Betcha can't walk by this book without stopping to take a look and then stay a while and read about these fascinating seabirds ... The photographs attract us, but it is Lynch's entertaining informative writing style that holds us with these great penguin stories ... All in all, Lynch offers a fascinating book about those seabirds we love to watch in wonder.

Oakland Press

[Review of previous edition:] An enormous amount of scientific information about the penguin -- from the 17 different kinds of diet to mating -- is presented in a lively, engaging way, accompanied by Lynch's glorious photographs of his subject in all manner of guises.

Globe and Mail

[Review of previous edition:] A bright and colorful look at these appealing creatures. Science writer and photographer Lynch covers types of penguins, locomotion, diet, mating, predators, and other aspects of penguin life in an easy-to-read text enlivened by anecdotes from his travels. For example, he tells of watching a curious young king penguin nibble the flipper of a sleeping elephant seal, then cry out and flee when the seal raised its head and belched. There are plenty of details and statistics for students doing reports, and the many color photos are clear and attractive.

Kliatt

[Review of previous edition:] A readable melange of anecdote, explanation, gee-whiz facts, and 'hot new research' in penguin studies, the text and plentiful accompanying photographs successfully portray penguins as 'more than cute creatures that waddle and bray.' ... This one might well be the answer to the question of what's black and white and read all over.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

[Review of previous edition:] Young readers will thoroughly enjoy this book ... Penguins! is a delightful book about this flightless bird. Together, the beautiful color photographs and the text tell a fascinating, exciting, and revealing story that will delight young readers.

Science Books and Films

Any doubts that penguins are the world's coolest birds will be dispelled by the illustrations and narrative in this well-written informational book. Find out what penguins eat, what eats them, how they go about mating and raising families, and how they are threatened by climate change. Even readers who already know a bit about the subject are sure to discover some surprising facts. Colorful photos that are both relevant and gorgeous appear on every page. Includes an index and a short list of suggestions for further reading... Recommend to young people with an interest in penguins in grades 4-7 for browsing or writing reports... 5 out of 5.

Youth Services Book Review

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