Winner at the 2012 Moonbeam Children's Book Awards A tale in which color and imagination help to turn children’s daily activities into unforgettable experiences. Guided Reading Level: K, Lexile Level: 730L

Surrounded by an incredible menagerie of animals that accompany his every move during the day, from eating breakfast and doing homework to taking baths and going to sleep at night, young David experiences a daily routine filled with imagination and unexpected adventure.

Some Penguins are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. But none of these applied to Dave. No, for him, greatness was an experience package delivered from the collective penguin mind to him by mistake. It was big and heavy with thousands of parts inside that smashed together alarmingly when you shook it. There was no obvious contact number or return address, and frankly the thing could have been for anyone. What Dave had actually ordered was a surfboard, a fishing rod, two tickets to a warm remote beach, and a simple life. What he got, was ultimate knowledge, a vast management problem, responsibility, and a bill for insufficient postage. Such was life these days. Yes, Dave was a penguin, but not just an ordinary penguin; he was an emperor penguin, and a smart one at that. He was about to have the most extreme ongoing 'spiritual' experience imaginable. The problem was that nobody could give a logical explanation as to what it actually was, what it was about, and what he was supposed to do about all the ongoing strange events, and his new found highly technical understanding of it all. In the Antarctic the world was much simpler, less confusion, less noise, less chaos, which made things in life easier to see, and you had more time to think about what it all meant. The question was should he save the world, or just hope the whole problem thing would all go away and leave him alone. Equally if we could see things from Dave's point of view, and knew what he knew, then we may change too. Yes, he may know all the answers to life, the universe and everything, from quantum physics, psychology, biology, philosophy, natural sciences, technology etc. Yes every day of his life now read like a Dan Brown novel, but he was just a penguin after all, in a simple world of ice snow and fish. Besides nobody had asked him to have this thing, he didn't want to know anyway, he was just a bloke penguin minding his own business. So even though he 'knew all', what could he do about it all, and why should he anyway ? The answers were extreme, and more than a bit surprising.

Centuries ago, when penguins were first encountered by European explorers, they were not thought to be birds but rather a fish-like relative. Subsequent accumulation of knowledge has shown penguins to be an avian species with unrivaled aquatic attributes, owing to a number of evolutionary adaptations: shape change, low drag, ability to regulate buoyancy, and extraordinary surface compliancy from their featheration. They are indeed the most extremely specialized diving bird, having given up flight (which otherwise is hugely advantageous) to the benefit of underwater prowess (such as speed, maneuverability and an ability to exploit an extraordinary range of depths). This flightlessness, however, also comes with costs that are substantial for a seabird (such as the inability to cover large distances quickly in reaction to ephemeral prey); and the energy needed to cope with moving through an aqueous environment, which is more resistant than air. For penguins, the high energetic costs in exploiting the ocean environment thus makes them especially sensitive to changes in food availability or their access to their prey. While a number of “penguin books” cover the natural history, mainly of breeding aspects, few address in much detail the incredible aquatic nature of these creatures. A huge amount of information has been amassed over recent past decades thanks to dramatic advances in microelectronics, bio-logging and maturation of some long-term studies of penguin life history. This work represents an integration of all these data with charts, maps and graphs, along with richly illustrated photos by experts in the field.

The vibrant and exciting world of penguins is shown in all its glory in this new collection of photographs from renowned wildlife photographer David Tipling. Tipling has trekked to remote and beautiful locations to capture birds in their natural habitat going about their daily lives. Moments rarely caught by humans have been preserved on film and reproduced here in glorious full-colour images. Penguins: Close Encounters showcases 140 amazing photographs of birds in the wild, and a short description accompanies each image. The ebook has coverage of all the world's 17 penguin species, including a comprehensive 'penguins fact file' section, and all aspects of their lives and behaviour.

The highly successful Imponderables series continues with Feldman's best collection yet of questions about everyday life for which encyclopedias and other reference books just don't have answers. Destined to join the ranks of Feldman's earlier bestselling works like Why Do Dogs Have Wet Noses? and When Do Fish Sleep?--this is a must for his growing legion of fans. Line drawings.ign.

Fresh, fun ideas for children's storytime fill this book. The author, a long-time storytime facilitator, has put together 52 weekly themes plus additional plans for holidays, all with detailed instructions for talking about the theme and choosing the books, crafts, songs, poems, games and snacks. Each storytime idea is illustrated with photographs of a suggested craft and snack for easy reference. Libraries, bookstores, preschools and parents alike can use this book to offer themed storytimes that include discussion, literature, art, music, movement and food. Options are provided for each storytime, so the ideas can be used year after year.