100 Books Like Penguin

A nighttime ritual in words and art, Goodnight Moon bathes readers in routine and gentle reassurance.

The lullaby-like text brings peace and a feeling of stability in a turbulent world.

This book shows how small, predictable patterns can calm strong feelings, helping children to explore big emotions inside a cozy, secure emotional bubble. It’s perfect for bedtime or whenever little hearts need grounding.

I love the subtle humor in this book. I also love the pattern and rhythm of the dialogue.

When the story circles back to the natural conclusion, I use the characters’ reactions and expressions to have children infer what really happened, who stole the hat, and how the problem was solved. 

Rosie’s Walk is a perfect example of what a picture book should look like. The text and the illustrations are in perfect harmony, although the text tells us one story and the pictures another. 

The story is about a hen who goes for a peaceful walk across the yard, around the pond, across the field... and back home for dinner. But through the beautiful illustrations you can see a different story. The hen is followed by a naughty fox all the way. The hen was lucky and purely by luck escaped unharmed from the fox, who stepped on the rake, fell into the pond, got stuck in the haycock, and was chased away by bees. 

The book gives the child a chance to participate, take over and become the narrator who tells the story.

I could choose any of Eric Carle’s books purely for his beautiful, timeless illustrations, but my choice this time is Dream Snow. It is a lift-the-flap book about a farmer who falls asleep on Christmas Eve and wakes up just in time to deliver Christmas presents to his animals. They are called One, Two, Three, Four, and Five. The book has a lovely festive atmosphere and anyone who has come home tired from playing in the snow and fallen asleep in front of the fire will immediately recognise the cosy feeling of this book.  

This beautiful book is written by a famous penguin expert who wrote the ‘bible’ about penguins for adults, so you can be absolutely certain that all of the information is 100% accurate! (Which, unfortunately, is not always the case for books written by individuals who aren’t penguin experts. That said, you can be assured that every book on this curated list has extremely accurate information about penguins!) Each species in this book has a page with fact sheets, geographical ranges, and biological details. There are also numerous photos and absolutely gorgeous illustrations that are highly detailed, bringing the author’s words to life in a visually engaging way. This is the perfect book for children who want to take a deeper dive into the lives of penguins. Best for ages 9-12.

This is an incredibly informative and fun book! The author is a field researcher who has written many books about penguins - all imbued with his cheeky sense of humor. The Q&A format makes this book easily digestible for both adults and kids. Each themed chapter has many questions that are answered with a few paragraphs and photos. The answers are both detailed and succinct. The Q&A format even works well for those with dementia. When my father had Alzheimer’s, and could no longer comprehend what he was reading, he actually read this book for a few solid hours, often turning to me to say, “Did you know that penguins could…[x, y, z]?” I already loved this book - but this gave it a permanent special place in my heart.

This book is the kid in all of us. Reggie is awkward, silly, full of anxiety, and ready for fun. 

Reggie's day is full of screw-ups, victories , new discoveries, and disasters, which I found relatable to my (and probably many others) elementary school days. Reggie is just a regular kid penguin, and that’s what makes him so endearing. With simple line work and bright colors, Jen de Oliveira is familiar, fun, and full of humor.

After the first two pages, I fell in love with the Reggie character, and it’s still one of my absolute favorite early reader graphic novels. 

This is the only other book for adults (besides mine) about the world’s largest animal rescue, when 40,000 penguins were rescued from the Treasure oil spill in Cape Town, South Africa. Spill is written by six individuals from various organizations who headed up this groundbreaking rescue effort. At just 96 pages, and featuring numerous dramatic photos, this 8x12” softcover is more of a coffee table book. The riveting stories are all told by rescuers who were on the front lines of this historic event. The compelling photographs by award-winning photographer, Jon Hrusa, bring the reader face to face with the oiled penguins and their polluted environment. Published in South Africa, Spill is out of print, but rare copies occasionally pop up online. It’s definitely worth keeping an eye out for.

This wonderful book is informative, very comprehensive, and visually stunning. It covers everything from the first recorded penguins, to their locations, their feeding and breeding behaviors, their predators, and the various threats to penguins - both historically and in the present. But this is in no way a dry, “just the facts, ma'am” book about penguins. The scientific information about penguin biology and behavior is told in a very engaging way, and it is enhanced by absolutely gorgeous and lifelike watercolor illustrations. This book provides a thorough, age-appropriate overview of the lives of penguins, and is one of my favorite books for both the content and the beautiful illustrations. Best for ages 7-10.

For serious penguin geeks, this book has long been the penguin bible. If you’re looking for scientifically accurate information about the biology and behavior of each penguin species, this is a fantastic reference book. Written by a leading ornithologist who has done field research on penguins, The Penguins gives a very comprehensive overview of each species, with detailed information about everything from breeding biology, to foraging ecology, to physical measurements, and much more. There are many illustrations and graphs as well. (The Penguins is manna for natural-science geeks and hard-core bird nerds.)