ALA Booklist (Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 CDT 2009)

Similar in format to the husband-and-wife team's About Rodents (2008) and About Arachnids (2003), this nonfiction picture book introduces characteristics and behaviors of birds in the penguin family. Each double-page spread features a full-page painting on the right-hand side, facing a white page with a simple line or two of text, a plate number for the illustrations, and an identification of the penguin species and any other animals pictured. Children and parents who want additional information will find it in the seven-page afterword, which includes a small reproduction of each plate (accompanied by an informative paragraph commenting on the picture), a glossary, and short lists of recommended books and Web sites. As in the Sills' other books on animals and habitats, the nicely composed, precisely delineated, and often beautiful paintings illustrate the clearly written main text very effectively. A pleasing entry in a dependable series.

Horn Book (Thu Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2010)

One or two sentences or phrases on each left-hand page offer fairly sophisticated yet accessible information about the lives and behaviors of penguins. Right-hand pages feature detailed paintings of different penguins in their appropriate habitats. Appended thumbnails are accompanied by further information. Websites. Bib., glos.

School Library Journal (Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 CDT 2009)

K-Gr 3 A brief overview of the 17 species of penguins inhabiting the Southern Hemisphere. A page with one or two simple sentences (or, sometimes, a partial sentence) alternates with realistic, often-full-page watercolor paintings of the featured animals. The text describes key physical and behavioral characteristics common to all penguins, diet, and some special characteristics of different species. Most of the beautifully rendered paintings feature a colony of penguins in a natural setting showing front, back, and side views of the birds; in some illustrations, they appear in the foreground, clearly displaying body markings, colors, distinctive crests, etc. Each species is identified in a caption on the text page. Short blocks of text, paired with small color replicas of the paintings, provide more detailed information in an afterword, along with the animals' geographical range. Although the amount of detail the minimal text offers is, perforce, limited, Sill's title still compares favorably with other introductions aimed at about the same age level. Its carefully executed watercolor artwork is more precise than that in Gail Gibbons's Penguins! (Holiday House, 1998) and depicts more species than the photographs in Frankie Stout's Penguins (Rosen, 2009). With its simple text and lovely watercolors, About Penguins will appeal to a wide audience. Karey Wehner, formerly at San Francisco Public Library