Alberta by Tania Cox
Ill. by Janine Dawson. Working Title Press, 2014. ISBN
9781921504037.
(Age: 4-8) Recommended. Penguins, Family, Eggs, Siblings,
Antarctica. Alberta is thrilled when her penguin parents tell her of
the imminent arrival of a sister. Being Alberta, she expects the
sister to be big, just as she was able to bring in a big fish to
show her friends, or find a huge slide for her friends to slide
down, or gather together a huge snowball, much larger than those of
her peers. Everything Alberta does is on the large size, and her
expectations are just the 'Alberta way'.
When her parents build their nest of stones, she builds one too, a
tower which sways over the land. Her father realises that her
expectations are not realistic, and she is disappointed when the
first egg arrives and is rather small. The second egg is just the
same, and Alberta is asked to look after them when her parents go
off to catch some fish. Alberta almost loses the eggs to an egg
thief but throws a stone to the bird just in time. Then when the
eggs hatch she is thrilled.
A charming tale first published in 2007, of siblings, of family and
parenthood, the penguin depicted reflects the feelings shown by
children when a new addition occurs within the family, and lead to
much discussion about what this means.
The Gentoo (Gentu) penguins shown in this tale do build nests of
stones, unlike the ones many children will be used to from Happy
Feet, so discussion about these penguins and where they live
will bring in another point of interest for children. The lively
illustrations show clearly what life is like in this part of the
world, a barren landscape with little vegetation, snow and ice and a
very cold sea.
Fran Knight