A PENGUIN PUP FOR PINKERTON

The latest Pinkerton from Kellogg is a bit too all over the place to sustain an actual story line, and Pinkerton is too distracted to play even a fantasy role of a father. Emily learns in school that father Emperor penguins cradle their chick’s egg on their feet through nine long weeks to keep them warm. Pinkerton, a Great Dane dreaming of his own flock of penguins, decides he is going to cradle a white football he has found. This he does until a dog biscuit distracts him, allowing the owner of the football to reclaim his equipment. As Pinkerton is being led home through the park, he spies another football and kidnaps it, busting through a dog show for good measure. He is located at the neighborhood ice rink, where he is sitting patiently for the football to hatch. A quick substitution by Granny (whose been sewing stuffed animals throughout the story) insures the return of the football and a successful hatching for Pinkerton. As an agent of mayhem, Pinkerton has no equal, and preposterous stories can be good fun, but this one just never gets on track: Pinkerton is too self-involved for the idea of fatherhood to seem appealing to him. Still, this gives Kellogg a chance to showcase his wonderfully busy, magnetic artwork. It keeps everything humming along on the visual plane so much so that there’s no need for a real story to back it up. (Picture book. 4-7)