A Penguin Like Me

PreS-Gr 2–“From a distance we all look the same—simply a large group of penguins. But every one of us is different. And yet, although we’re each different, we form a community.” This gentle book is about accepting and celebrating differences. The beginning and closing endpapers include a variety of penguins in different groupings, and the text, “Every penguin is different. But each one is a penguin.” Told in the first person by a caring and empathetic unnamed penguin narrator, the story introduces penguins by name to readers, while the narrator explains how they are different. Without specifically naming them, neurodiversity, mental health, and gender nonconformity are some of the differences Pfister describes in his text and illustrations. Children are free to see themselves, or perhaps someone else, in the words and pictures. At the end of the book, the narrator mentions, “By the way, did you know that it’s almost impossible to tell if a penguin is a girl...or a boy...or something in between from the outside? Maybe that doesn’t matter. The main thing is that we’re all penguins. And we belong together.”