The Snowy Penguin

By Author / Illustrator

Holly Webb, David Dean

Genre

Animals

Age range(s)

Publisher

Little Tiger

ISBN

9781788957458

Format

Paperback / softback

Published

02-10-2025

Synopsis

Bella is thrilled to be joining her mum on an expedition to study penguins on the Antarctic coast. While exploring one of the islands she discovers an unusual penguin with a pale brown coat instead of the typical black. But before Bella can investigate further, she spots an old pirate ship sailing to the island, then she blinks - and it disappears!

Bella is convinced that she imagined it, until she goes out searching for the pale penguin again and bumps into a boy named Jules. He has arrived with a group of sailors from the 1800s, and they're desperate to catch the rare penguin for themselves...

A magical wintry tale from best-selling author Holly Webb. For fans of Michael Morpurgo and The Snow Foal, this is the perfect book to snuggle up with and enjoy this winter.

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Reviews

Lizi

Bella is going on an expedition to the Antarctic with her mum to study penguins and she is absolutely overjoyed to be doing so! One day, whilst out exploring, Bella comes across a pale brown penguin but before she has chance to investigate it further she notices a ship... And then she stumbles upon a boy called Jules who has arrived on that ship in the 1800s.

Webb's stories are usually easy to read and well explained, and The Snowy Penguin is no different. It's an interesting subject and will be so far removed from most readers' daily lives that it is engaging and informative. Based on some elements of truth (Webb explains this at the back of the book), the characters are engaging and the setting quite mystical.

The book is a chapter book with a fair amount of half page illustrations throughout that help to convey the meaning. I've been reading it as a bedtime book with my six-year-old, who has enjoyed the story and the illustrations, although I had to explain the idea of a time slip to her!

Trigger warnings that are fair to give for this story, I feel - Bella's dad has passed away in the story and she has to leave her friends to live at the base for six months. This would be a good story for children with an interest in Antarctic exploration or time travel.