• Age: 5 to 8
• Grade: k to 3

Have you ever thought about bringing home a stray cat or dog? What about a penguin? When Tina meets a penguin who's tired of living in the zoo, she decides to help him escape! With quick thinking and a clever disguise, Tina sneaks her new-found friend home. But it doesn't take long for her to realize that a penguin is a very peculiar pet --- and that's just the tip of the iceberg!

Heather Dyer is the award-winning author of a picture book and five middle-grade novels. She grew up on Vancouver Island and in North Wales, both of which reappear as the settings of her books --- with a little added magic.

Heather Dyer's profile page

MIREILLE LEVERT, diplômée en Arts visuels de l’UQÀM, travaille en littérature jeunesse. Elle écrit et illustre ses propres textes. Elle a remporté deux fois le prix du Gouverneur général du Canada pour ses illustrations. Avec Quand j’écris avec mon cœur elle choisit une nouvelle voie, la poésie pour l’écriture et l’élaboration de ses illustrations. Pour elle désormais chaque jour est un poème qu’elle reçoit avec ses yeux, ses oreilles et son cœur. L’album est finaliste au prix du Gouverneur général du Canada et au prix TD. Elle vit à Montréal, Québec, et aime partager avec les enfants la joie de créer en mots et en images.

Mireille Levert's profile page

• Winner, Parent to Parent Adding Wisdom Award
• Commended, Recommended Book , The National Association for Humane and Environmental Education
• Winner, Our Choice, Canadian Children's Book Centre

Levert's sly illustrations provide much of the humor in first-timer Dyer's story of a girl who harbors a runaway penguin for a couple of nerve-wracking days.

Publishers Weekly

Suitable for individual sharing or story time, this story will have children giggling over the endearing Tina and her stowaway.

Booklist

This marvelous story teaches more about environment and empathy than many educational books.

Canadian Children's Book News

Looking after a penguin is harder work than it might at first seem, although to be fair to Tina, it wasn't a job she interviewed for.

Globe & Mail

When a penguin follows Tina after a class trip to the zoo, she dresses him in her pink coat and beret and takes him home on the bus. The expected difficulties of keeping him a secret ensue, but ultimately the bird finds a way to get back to Antarctica. The watercolor-and-gouache illustrations colorfully capture the actions, showing Tina as she tries to accommodate her guest, and careful inspection reveals whimsical touches ...

School Library Journal