Valeri Gorbachev continued her simple, yet colorful, illustrations in this book. She focused on a child's imagination, as she has done in several of her other books, like Nicky and the Rainy Day. Little Turtle's father reads him a book about penguins and Little Turtle loves the idea of being a penguin that he dreams he is a penguin that night. the next morning he makes a penguin costume and goes to school where he shares all the cool facts he learned about penguins. The other kids love the idea of being a penguin so they spend the day waddling around and sliding on their bellies and dreaming about being Penguins. It was a cute story, overall. ( )

I had great feelings about this book after reading it. I liked it for two reasons: the non-fiction fact sheet in the back of the book and how the book pushes readers to think about who they are. The penguin’s fact sheet in the back of the book lists ten facts about penguins to inform the reader and clarify any misconceptions. For example, one fact is “Penguins eat fish, squid, and tiny shrimplike animals called krill.” I also liked that it pushed readers to think about who they are. This is exemplified when the little turtle says “It’s not a funny costume… I’m a penguin!” The reader is pushed to think about what role appearance and experience play in who you are. The big idea in this book is to be who you are, even if that changes every day. ( )

This is a very cute children's picture book! It's nothing incredibly special, but it has beautiful, intricate illustrations and a story young kids can relate to. I enjoy how the little turtle acts much like a young child himself, trying on costumes and playing make-believe.

FANTASY: The book is about animals living like humans. The penguin family wears clothes, speaks, and sends Little Penguin to school with his other animal friends.
USE IN CLASSROOM: 1) This story would be a good way to talk about student interests-- just like the turtle was interested in penguins, students in the class can talk about their own interests and what they do regarding those interests. 2) A teacher could use this book to talk about make-believe and pretending to be someone or something else. The class could talk about how the turtle did everything a penguin did, but did that really make him a penguin?
MEDIA: Watercolors

In my opinion this is an amazing book! This is such a cute story! I love the illustrations in this story. The illustrations really engage the reader and draw them in. You can see the excitement in little turtles face as he waddles down the stairs in his penguin costume.
I also really enjoyed the characters. Little penguin is so much like a first grader after learning about a new person or animal. They immediately want to be that person or animal, until they find something else they find interesting. The way little penguin waddles around with excitement at school and gets all the other kids at school wanting to be penguins reminds me of my nephew!
The big idea of this story is to remind readers how much fun it can be when you use your imagination. ( )

I really enjoyed this book because even though the characters were all fictional animals I was able to picture little kids doing the things characters in the book were doing. It's so common for children to want to go to school dressed as a character they want to be, much like what the little turtle did with penguins. Overall I found this book to be very charming, as well as relatable for children to read. ( )