PPBF: Penguin Flies Home

Today my heart is so incredibly happy because I got to

work play with some passionate educators this week.

We started the week visiting with Dr. Jody Carrington

on our Character Speaks podcast. Click the image below

to see what she has to say about loving and raising Kids These Days.

Image source: Catherine Williams

I spent Monday afternoon with these amazing preK teachers

connecting as we practiced self-care and mindfulness.

On Thursday, a highlight was our Rock Paper Scissors tournament 

in a day-long Character Strong Professional Development session 

with these epic leaders in Jackson County, Alabama.

We laughed and cried as we collaborated and stretched

and my soul was singing as I flew home last night.

Thank you CCISD and Jackson County for your warm welcome

and your commitment to holding the hearts of our precious future.

All of this brings us to PPBF, another reason I'm soaring.

Title: Penguin Flies Home

Author and Illustrator: Lita Judge

Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers 

Birth Date: January 15, 2019

Suitable for: ages 4-8 (and beyond!)

Themes: perseverance, growth mindset, friendship

Opening page: Penguin loved to fly. It was true he needed a little help with the technical parts - but that's why he worked hard as a student at Flight School. And as his teacher said, "It isn't feathers that you need most to fly. It's heart, and this Penguin has heart."

Watch The Making of Penguin Flies Home {here}.

Watch a trailer for the book {here}.

Find out more at the publisher's page {here}.

Compare and contrast it with Penguins Can't Fly.

Read and discuss the short story Teaching Penguins To Fly.

Why I like this book: If you know me, then you know that I've been a huge fan of my friend Lita Judge and her Flight School masterpiece since it came out five years ago. With her permission, I read it aloud at every growth-mindset workshop, so you can imagine my delight when I heard that Penguin's tale taking flight again. And it was worth the wait.

You don't have to know Flight School for this sequel to immediately imprint itself on your heart; the book begins with a Yearbook page, taking its reader back to Penguin's days in Flight School to get them up to speed. The opening pages are even yellow, to replicate the color of Penguin's initial elevating experience.

Then it quickly changes to blue, to match how Penguin is feeling.

Not because anything's wrong really, but because he's homesick

and yearns to go home to show his penguin friends that he can fly.

{With a little help from his friends, of course.}

His flight-school friends get Penguin back home, but will his famiy and friends who'd rather swim still love him even though he's a fanatic about flying?

I made a text-to-self connection when I returned to Bales last week,

to share this treasure with a few of my fifth graders.

Like Penguin, I had flown home.

And it felt incredible.

They loved the book; one of them even argued that this book also has an underlying fairness theme because it's not fair that Penguins are flightless birds. Another told me he didn't think it was just for little kids because there's so much food for thought in its seemingly simple story. So insightful.

Check out this book, then head to Susanna's blog 

for today's other PPBF picks.

Happy weekend; bundle up and stay warm.