'Mr. Popper's Penguins' book is very different than the 2011 movie

I got a big kick out of an old, children’s book that I recently finished reading, 1938’s “Mr. Popper’s Penguins.”

Written by Richard and Florence Atwater and illustrated by Robert Lawson, many of you will be familiar with this book thanks to the 2011 movie by the same name that starred comedian Jim Carrey. While the book and movie do bare a few similarities, the two are very different. I’ll have more to say about that tomorrow.

Several weeks ago, there was a showing of the “Mr. Popper’s Penguins” movie on the downtown square in Monroeville, Ala., not far from where I live. In the days leading up to the movie, the Monroe County Library in Monroeville gave away free copies of the book to kids who planned to see the movie. My kids scored copies of the book from the library, and I ended up reading the book too.

For those of you unfamiliar with the book, it’s about poor house painter named Mr. Popper, who lives with his wife and two children in a small town called Stillwater in the 1930s. The only thing really remarkable about Mr. Popper is that he’s fascinated by polar exploration and is generally considered the town’s expert on all matters pertaining to Antarctica. He’s read everything in the town library about the subject, and he’s even written fan mail to a famous explorer, Admiral Drake.

This explorer acknowledges Mr. Popper’s fan mail by sending him a pet penguin that Popper names “Captain Cook” in honor of the famous explorer Capt. James Cook. When the local zoo catches wind of the fact that Mr. Popper has a male penguin, they send him a female penguin named “Greta.” Nature takes its course, and it’s not long before there are 10 little baby penguins running around.

The penguins begin to eat the Popper family out of house and home, so they train them to perform a circus act under the stage name of “Popper’s Performing Penguins.” They end up going on a nationwide tour, and when Admiral Drake shows up for a performance, they decide to join him on an expedition to the North Pole.

At 139 pages, the book was a quick read, and I enjoyed it for a number of reasons. I was surprised by and especially enjoyed the themes in the book that dealt with explorers and polar exploration. Mr. Popper and I share a healthy interest in both those subjects, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much of a part that played in the book. Plus, the book was very funny in places.

I wasn’t surprised to learn later that “Mr. Popper’s Penguins” was named a Newbery Honor Book in 1939. The Newbery award is given each year by the American Library Association in recognition of the “most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.”

In the end, how many of you have read “Mr. Popper’s Penguins”? What did you think about it? Did you like it or not? What was your favorite part? Let us know in the comments section below.