I Thought I Saw a Penguin! by Lydia Nichols

I Thought I Saw a Penguin! by Lydia Nichols. Templar Books, 9781536209976, 2020 

Format: Board Book

Rating:  1-5 (5 is an excellent or a Starred review) 5

Genre: Picture Book

 What did you like about the book? This book has everything that is sure to delight the youngest readers. It is a cute, yet simple, story about a little girl in search of a penguin. The penguin is hiding behind all kinds of things at the beach–an umbrella, a sandcastle, in a beach hut, and behind a beach ball. We finally see him surfing a wave out in the ocean. The repetitive nature of the story, “I thought I saw a penguin” “Is it behind the _____”, almost encourages children to “read” along with the story.

There are a couple of things that I really like about this book. First, the illustrations are incredibly bright and colorful and feature some fun details that children will enjoy seeing–sailboat, crab in a shell, ice cream cone, beach ball, fish, and other items they will recognize at the beach. The other feature I really like about this book is that it features sliders embedded into the pages to reveal the penguin–not lift-the-flaps or tags to pull. This feature allows the book to be something that young children can actually manipulate without concern of rips and tears. They can be active participants in the story. The slides feature a small round hole, perfect for little fingers. This makes it so easy to slide to reveal the penguin.

Anything you did not like about the book. Nothing

To whom would you recommend this book? This book is perfect for children ages birth to three. This book is especially good for children who enjoy being active with a book, either turning the pages, touching tactile objects on the book, or pressing buttons.

Who should buy this book? Public libraries, daycare, preschools, anyone who works with children under the age of three years old.

Where would you shelve it? Board books.

 Should we (librarians) put this on the top of our “to read” piles? Yes, even though this is a slider book, these pages will withstand the test of time. There are other books in this series that might be worth checking out– I Thought I Saw A Dinosaur!, I Thought I Saw A Lion!, I Thought I Saw An Elephant!I, Thought I Saw A Bear!, and I Thought I Saw A Monkey!

Reviewer’s Name, Library (or school), City: Kristin Guay, former youth services librarian.

Date of review: April 22, 2020