In this oversize picture book from France, family members deal with penguins that arrive at their home e a day, for a full year. The high jinks begin on New Year's Day. As the penguin population increases, Dad, Mom, and the kids use multiplication and a few other schemes to organize, feed, and care for the increasing number of birds, but the scheme they hatch only meets with temporary success. At the end of the year, Uncle Victor, an ecologist, arrives; explains why he has sent the birds; and takes all but one of them, Chilly, away. The premise is goofy, but the math is fun, and the generous trim size, eleven by fourteen and one-half inches, allows plenty of room to show the growing penguin population. The illustrations, in orange, blue, and black, give a retro, almost surreal look to the art, which perfectly fits the story. This is a lively romp from the beginning to the end en the first polar bear arrives. But that's another story.

Though not quite the elephant-folio size of Almost Everything (2005) and Zoo-ology (2003), this new Jolivet still probably won't fit into most oversize sections—but it should be just as popular with children. Slipping several math problems into his narrative, Fromental saddles an unsuspecting family with the daily arrival of a new penguin in the mail. The charm wears away as the weeks and months pass, however, and the smell of old fish (etcetera!) begins to become as compelling an issue as the overcrowding. Using a limited palette of mostly blue, bright orange and black, Jolivet creates lively silk-screened scenes featuring frantic family members struggling to cope with increasing flocks of small, toy-like, irresistibly cute penguins. At last, New Year's Eve arrives, as does Uncle Victor the ecologist, who explains that he's engaged in an effort to shift the beleaguered (though not endangered there, despite his claim) birds from the South to the North Pole in hopes of giving them a better chance of survival. Off he drives with the lot (except one), but then the next day brings a bigger box, with a considerably more problematic resident. A comic episode equally suited to sharing with one child or a lunchroom full of children. (Picture book. 6-8)

Comical math problems and an ecological message form a memorable counterpoint in Fromental's story of 365 penguins, one for each day of the year. The cheerful boy narrator of this oversize paper-over-board book recalls how a deliveryman brought a box to his family on New Year's Day. Inside, he and his older sister are thrilled to find a penguin and an unsigned note: "I'm number 1. Feed me when I'm hungry." Their parents look less pleased, especially when more shipments show up. "At the end of January, there were thirty-one penguins," and after February, they tally 31 plus 28. "On April the tenth exactly, penguin number 100 arrived," and the family calculates the weight and cost of the penguins' daily fish. They build penguin-storage cabinets and struggle to clean up after their charges. All but one penguin have orange feet, and readers play hide-and-seek with blue-footed Chilly; the lookalike birds' contrasting black and white, plus the complementary orange and blue of the family house, contribute to Jolivet's striking mod design. On December 31, the doorbell rings and the mystery is solved. Uncle Victor—a gray-bearded explorer in Birkenstocks—briskly summarizes his dubious attempt to protect this endangered species. Victor's postal plan clearly is impractical and removes threatened animals from their habitat. Yet Fromental and Jolivet creatively make the points that each penguin needs care and feeding, that humans have difficult responsibilities and that the world's creatures add up. Ages 5-up. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Dec.)

K-Gr 4-This hilarious, oversize picture book integrates challenging math concepts and environmental concerns into a clever narrative. On New Year's Day, a family receives an anonymous package containing a penguin. The young narrator chases the bird around the house as it runs amok and knocks over lamps and furniture. His sister, Amy, finds a note, "I'm number 1. Feed me when I'm hungry." Just as the message implies, there are more to come; by the end of the year, 365 in all. "Penguins, penguins everywhere./Black and white and in my hair," sighs Amy. As they arrive, readers must recall the number of days in each month-by the end of February, they are calculating the number of penguins in all. Then Father decides to organize them, first into four groups of 15, later in boxes by the dozen, and, finally, into a cubic formation. By summer, the heat, noise, and smell are unbearable. On New Year's Eve, ecologist Uncle Victor arrives and the mystery is solved. The engaging story is illustrated in a flat retro design with a palette dominated by orange, blue, gray, and black and white. The comical birds watch TV, dance with their teenage "sister," and eat everything in sight. The text provides endless opportunities for word problems, and units on penguins and global warming will never be the same.-Barbara Auerbach, New York City Public Schools Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.