Penguin Pandemonium - Christmas Crackers

Penguin Pandemonium - Christmas Crackers
Jeanne Willis

The fourth hilarious story about the irrepressible penguins of City Zoo, from award-winning author Jeanne Willis. An Awesome Animals title – meet the world’s funniest animals!It’s Christmas time at City Zoo!When Santa visits City Zoo, Rory and his penguin pals decide to celebrate.They build a snow penguin, decorate a tree and go on a magical sleigh ride.But they soon learn that the best thing about Christmas is sharing it with the penguins you love.

For Kelly and Dan. Happy Christmas xx

Table of Contents

Cover (#u576f4f01-6d6d-5a0d-92c8-727a725f50f9)

Title Page (#u8c6fbfb3-b0d0-5ac7-b960-d69418d54702)

Dedication (#ub279537a-d315-52af-8091-bd125f4ea19b)

Chapter One: In the Bleak Midwinter (#u4693c983-9a4b-5861-84b5-b76882a39b69)

Chapter Two: Jingle Bells (#u8bea40c8-2738-54a5-918c-e1835e347465)

Chapter Three: Santa Claus is Coming to Town (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Four: We Wish You a Merry Christmas (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Five: Bring Us Some Figgy Pudding (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Six: Walking in a Winter Wonderland (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seven: Oh, Christmas Tree (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eight: Away in a Manger (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nine: Hark! The Herald Angels Sing (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten: The First Noel (#litres_trial_promo)

Read more Awesome Animals books! (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

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 metres.

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 metre 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!

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t was almost Christmas and when the penguins woke at City Zoo, their enclosure looked like a winter wonderland. The snow was so thick it had drifted against Rory the rockhopper’s hutch door and he was struggling to open it. Luckily his best friend, Blue, the fairy penguin, was passing by when she heard his cry for help.

“What’s up, Rory? Are you stuck?” she called.

“No, I’m just yelling for fun … Of course I’m stuck!” he wailed. “There seems to be something really heavy wedged against my door, like an elephant.”

“There was a record fall in the night,” said Blue.

Rory stopped yelling for a moment. “Of elephants?”

“Of snow, silly,” said Blue, trying to brush it away with her flippers. “It’s no good, I can’t shift it. I’ll have to go and borrow a shovel from Waldo. Wait there, Rory.”

“Like I’m going anywhere,” he sighed.

Blue waddled off as fast as she could in the direction of the chinstrap penguins. Waldo had a large collection of lost property that visitors had left at the zoo and, among the hats, spectacles, trolleys and trinkets, there were some tools that the workmen had left behind. There was bound to be something she could use to dig Rory out.