Penguin Pandemonium

Penguin Pandemonium
Jeanne Willis

Ed Vere

Nathan Reed

An unforgettably funny, animal adventure story about a little bird with big dreams from award-winning author Jeanne Willis. One of the fantastic titles in the brand new Awesome Animals series - the funniest fiction, starring the wildest wildlife, from prize winning authors.Rory the rockhopper penguin loves showing off, but with few visitors to the zoo, life has become a little dull. If things don’t improve the zoo might have to close.So when the keepers install PENGUINCAM Rory grabs his chance with both flippers, organising a dazzling penguin talent show to pull in the crowds…

Dedication

For Elizabeth Morris

J.W. xx

Contents

Cover (#u36f1dffb-ba0a-5d39-9a49-64d818181b2b)

Title Page

Dedication

Meet the Penguins!

Chapter One: Where is Everybody?

Chapter Two: Dangers of the Wild

Chapter Three: Penguin Cam-demonium

Chapter Four: The Greatest Show on Earth

Chapter Five: Bird Fight

Chapter Six: Chicks and Chinstraps

Chapter Seven: Rory Gets Goosed

Chapter Eight: The Show Must Go On

Chapter Nine: Costume Drama

Chapter Ten: No Business Like Show Business

Chapter Eleven: Hooray for Rory

Copyright

About the Publisher

Looks: Rockhoppers have spiky yellow and black feathers on their heads that look like long eyebrows.

How big? 45 to 58 cm – about half the size of adult Emperor Penguins.

Favourite food: Shrimps.

Penguin party trick: Rockhopper Penguins love to burst from the water and land on the rocks with a belly flop.

Flipper fact: They hop from rock to rock, keeping both feet together and can jump up to one and a half meters.

Looks: Fairy Penguins have blue feathers on their heads and backs but have white bellies.

How big? 30 to 33 cm – the world’s smallest penguin.

Favourite food: Sardines and anchovies.

Penguin party trick: In the wild, Fairy Penguins are nocturnal so they only go on land at night (well past the Rockhoppers’ bedtime).

Flipper fact: The world’s smallest penguin – they are also known as the Little Penguin, or the Little Blue Penguin.

Looks: Emperor Penguins have black backs, white tummies and bright splashes of yellow and orange on their front and their ears. The chicks are fluffy and grey and their faces are white, not black.

How big?! Up to one meter tall – the world’s tallest and heaviest penguin (over three times as tall as Little Blue!).

Favourite food: Squid.

Penguin party trick: When an egg is laid, the male stands with the egg on his feet to keep it warm until it hatches (this can take up to nine weeks).

Flipper fact: Emperor Penguins can stay under water for nearly twenty minutes!

Looks: Chinstrap Penguins get their name from the small black band that runs under their chin.

How big? Up to 68 cm (twice as tall as Fairy Penguins).

Favourite food: Little shrimps called krill.

Penguin party trick: Chinstraps are also known as Stonecracker Penguins because their call is so harsh it sounds like it could break stones.

Flipper fact: Chinstraps are the most common type of penguin – there are about thirteen million of them in the world.

… Ahem, he’s a GOOSE!

here was a time when the greatest day out a kid could ever have was a trip to City Zoo. In the school holidays, the queue used to stretch from the ticket kiosk all the way down Royal Road as people flocked to see the pandas, the pythons and most of all, the penguins.

But times had changed and nobody felt this more than Rory the rockhopper penguin. Since the day he hatched in the penguin enclosure he’d been the star attraction. Even as a chick, there was nothing he liked more than showing off his moves to the visitors.

Not so long ago, when Rory hopped on to the diving board and did his famous back flip with a triple somersault into the pool, the crowd went wild. They would cheer so loudly, you could hear them by the lion enclosure on the other side of the zoo. Today, there was silence.

“Where is everybody, Little Blue?” sighed Rory. “It was never this quiet when we were growing up, was it?”