PENGUIN POST

With characteristic warmth and zest, Gliori (Pure Dead Wicked, p. 955, etc.) takes a star turn with the perennial “waiting for the new baby to come” theme. Little Milo the penguin doesn’t know how he feels about the egg his mother the mail carrier has laid. But then, when she leaves on a food-finding mission, someone has to take care of the egg and someone has to deliver her mail. After taking on her route, delivering baby goods to a string of Moms from Ursula Major the bear to Ms. Stella Polaris (address: “Over the Pole, The Milky Way”), Milo finds the egg itself at the bottom of his mail sack, and makes one last, mind-settling “special delivery” to his own address. Dad, it seems, has been keeping a baby gift warm instead of the egg. Tucking comic side details (a set of nesting penguins, tiny bee-sized high heels) into each of her spacious, crisply drawn polar scenes, Gliori follows this spirited young mailbird as he drags his oversized rucksack up steep slopes, then gleefully rides it back down. Whether they too are expecting new siblings or not, children following along will cheer every successful delivery, and may become less inclined to take their own mail carriers for granted. (Picture book. 6-8)