A Penguin Named Patience

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, there is no electric power to the Audubon Aquarium, and the African penguin habitat becomes dangerously hot. The penguin-keeper arrives to soothe Patience and 18 other black-footed penguins, feed them, pack them into carriers, and travel with them by truck and plane to the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California. Eventually, they all return to New Orleans. An appended note offers more information about the hurricane’s aftermath and the penguin rescue. Though classified as nonfiction, the text veers toward fiction at times, with mild anthropomorphism (“Patience tried to be patient”), playful descriptions of individual penguins (“Kohl was red hot. Bunny was jumpy”), and presumably invented speech from the penguin-keeper (“You’re all going on a long trip! You’ll meet new penguin friends”). Anchin’s line-and-wash illustrations are well conceived and endearing, but they support the humanizing tone of the text in the birds’ facial expressions and added eyebrows. Still, children will undoubtedly enjoy this picture book as an appealing story.

A moving account of a colony of penguins at the Audubon Aquarium in New Orleans that survived after Hurricane Katrina due to a dedicated staff and a host aquarium. In the opening scene, Patience is alone and looks concerned. Patience knows the air is getting hotter and wonders where the penguin keeper and his pail of sardines might be. The narrator’s voice is focused through Patience’s perspective and has a childlike simplicity, supplying just enough information about the aftereffects of the storm to convey the serious conditions without being frightening. The penguins are getting cranky, but Patience tries to “be patient.” This refrain will repeat throughout, for even after the penguin keeper arrives, Patience’s patience will be tried—especially when the penguins are moved to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and her dear keeper must return to New Orleans. Uncluttered watercolor illustrations keep the focus on the two main characters and capture the emotions between the two. Children will empathize with Patience’s feelings of uncertainty about the upheaval and separation. And they will feel jubilation when the colony finally arrives home, with Patience leading the way into the repaired aquarium. A satisfying animal survival story for the youngest set. (author’s note) (Picture book. 4-8)

In an uplifting true story, Patience, the oldest African penguin at the Audubon Aquarium in New Orleans, tries to keep the other penguins safe during Hurricane Katrina. Finally, the penguin keeper arrives to transport the penguins to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, where they stay for nine months before receiving a colorful reception when they arrive home. Lewis tends to anthropomorphize Patience (“In her cage, Patience was confused and worried. She was relieved to see the penguin keeper get on the plane, too”), and Anchin’s cartoons steer away from naturalism, giving the penguins recognizably mournful and gleeful reactions to events. Readers aren’t given much sense of the hurricane itself, so neither the stakes nor danger ever feel especially dire, but an author’s note offers additional background on both the disaster and the Audubon penguins.