Jonty Gentoo
Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
Alison Green Books

Jonty Gentoo, the penguin, lives at the zoo with his aunts. When they share stories with him of the South Pole, an icy, snowy land with penguin colonies, Jonty decides that’s a place he must definitely visit. One moonlit night he makes his escape though a hole in the fence and sallies forth into the unknown. He has no idea of the meaning of a geographic pole though he realises that the flagpole, barge pole and tent pole he passes aren’t what his aunts meant so he keeps walking until tired of so doing, he plunges from a cliff edge into the sea.

After weeks of swimming the water temperature drops and eventually he reaches a white icy wilderness. Surely this is the place he seeks: but having waddled for weeks not a single penguin has he spied. Having been in danger of becoming the next meal of a huge bearded seal, he encounters a polar bear that shoos off the seal

and offers him help. It turns out that the little penguin has travelled in completely the wrong direction – north instead of south. Months pass and then a tern, surprised at seeing a penguin in that location, agrees to guide Jonty to his desired destination. And so, ‘the bird in the sea and the bird in the air’ travel together southwards, at one point aboard a boat all the way to …

the Antarctic and ‘A heart-warming huddle of gorgeous gentoos.’ Just what’s needed after an arduous journey.

Despite the chilly location, Julia’s rhythmic, rhyming narrative is also heartwarming – it’s perfect for reading aloud and young children will delight in the details of Axel Scheffler’s illustrations, a few of which may send frissons of fear through them. The book concludes with brief notes giving information about some of the birds in the story. Another sure-fire winner for team Julia and Axel.