Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater has been reviewed by Focus on the Family’s marriage and parenting magazine.
Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater has been reviewed by Focus on the Family’s marriage and parenting magazine.
Mr. Popper is a house painter. He spends his days dreaming of explorers and adventures, preferably in the Arctic (North Pole) or Antarctic (South Pole). One day he writes to the famous explorer Admiral Perry, telling him how much he enjoyed the pictures of Perry’s latest expedition in National Geographic, and how funny he thought the penguins were.
In response, Admiral Perry sends a surprise — a live penguin — to Mr. Popper’s house. The penguin, named Captain Cook, does some exploring of his own in the Popper house, and the Popper family makes a home for him in their refrigerator. They have a variety of adventures around town as Captain Cook adjusts to his new home, and the Poppers (and townspeople) adjust to him.
After a while, the penguin becomes ill. Mr. Popper, writing for advice, receives (instead of advice) yet another sickly penguin in the mail. It turns out the two birds were lonely. With each other, they quickly recover. The new penguin is a girl, and soon there are 10 more newly hatched penguins around the house.
The additional mouths strain the Poppers’ already limited household finances. (Mr. Popper’s painting business is seasonal, so the winter months are lean, even without the extra houseguests.) Mrs. Popper wonders whether they will need to sell the penguins or eat them. Then he thinks they can be trained instead and taken on tour. The Popper family puts together three acts, incorporating what the penguins spend most of their time doing. The owner of the local theater becomes enthralled with the penguins. He offers Mr. Popper a handsome salary, and books them on a 10-week, cross-country tour to some of his other theaters.
The tour is a tremendous success. Audiences across the country love the penguins, and the penguins love to not only perform, but explore. Their insatiable curiosity gets them in trouble, but their impeccable manners and genuine goodwill cover a multitude of sins.
Until, that is, the last leg of their tour, in New York City. A variety of complications arise, and Mr. Popper and the penguins are thrown in prison for disturbing the peace. They have no money for bail (their admittedly high salary matched by equally high travel expenses), and no way to contact their theater-owning benefactor. They only know he lives somewhere in Hollywood. And since the tour is done, they have no remaining obligations to him (or reason to think he will contact them). They hope he might contact them to renew the contract, but have no reason to think that he will.
Mr. Popper and the penguins languish in prison for about a week, when at last, the long-hoped-for call comes, and they’re free to go. But surprisingly, there is no kind theater-owner posting their bail — it’s Admiral Perry instead. He is in the States, curious to learn whatever happened to the guy with the penguins, and hugely impressed with what Mr. Popper has accomplished. He poses a question: Would Mr. Popper allow him to take the penguins to start a colony at the North Pole? (Penguins are common at the South Pole, but non-existent at the North.)
Just then the theater-owner arrives with a filmmaking friend of his and an offer of their own. Would Mr. Popper consider a movie deal? America (and Hollywood) would love the birds — there are untold riches to be made.
Mr. Popper doesn’t know what to do but promises them an answer by morning. He and his wife spend a long evening weighing the options. In the end, he gives the penguins to Admiral Perry to take to the North Pole. It breaks his heart to see them go, but he knows it is in the birds’ best interest. The Hollywood team asks for time to make a short film before they leave — just a clip to record the penguins’ tricks, which will be used as a newsreel to tell America about these brave pioneer penguins going North with Admiral Perry. Everyone agrees to this, and the filmmaker pays a generous sum to the Poppers for their trouble.
The Poppers stay in New York for a few days until the steamship taking the penguins and Admiral Perry is ready to leave. Mr. Popper says painful goodbyes to the penguins, carrying through with the decision to let them go only because he knows it truly is best for them. When he goes above deck to say goodbye to Admiral Perry, he learns that Admiral Perry is, in fact, expecting him to go with.
After a quick conversation with Mrs. Popper, Mr. Popper is set to leave. The book closes with an exuberant Mr. Popper heading off to live (and for all practical purposes, continue) this much longed-for adventure.
Only fleeting, high-level references are made to a general Christian culture. Sunday is seen as a special day, with the possibility of treats, and Mr. Popper’s best clothes are described as his Sunday best. Mrs. Popper’s main social activity outside the house is her regular meeting of the Ladies Aid and Missionary Society. And when she first hears about one of the more selfish behaviors of penguins in the wild, Mrs. Popper thinks they sound like rather a heathen animal.
None
Within the home, Mrs. Popper (a classic “Type A” personality) can get exasperated with, but genuinely admires, Mr. Popper (an equally classic “Type B”). And he is always kind to her, even when she is cross. They work well together as a team. Mrs. Popper’s strong personality could well dominate the household, but we see her being intentional to not control Mr. Popper. The Popper children remain in the background. They do enjoy and care for the penguins and appreciate the cross-country tour, but are clearly supporting characters in the story.
Outside the home, authority roles (the police, local government, etc.) are generally respected, although individuals within those roles may not be. For example, a policeman is sought by one of the townspeople when the first penguin arrives. The policeman comes to the house, makes a good decision about what is going on and gives helpful advice to Mr. Popper regarding how to learn the proper rules and licensing for the bird.
On the other hand, the Poppers’ son mocks the policeman for hesitating to come inside with the penguin. And later, when Mr. Popper gets tangled in considerable red tape and confusion during his phone call to City Hall, he reaches his exasperation limit, yells at the government worker and then hangs up in the middle of being transferred.
The Poppers’ respect for authority pushes the letter of the law and seemingly embraces the spirit of the law. For example, when on tour and facing pet restrictions in some hotels, Mr. Popper asks if there are any laws prohibiting penguins, which there never are. He can be sly about penguin bus fares and creating arctic conditions on public transportation, too — just quietly pushing the envelope until he and his penguins exasperate other travelers, at which point Mr. Popper and his penguins leave the bus, genuinely polite and respectful.
Mrs. Popper praises cleanliness. She works hard to keep a tidy house and shows how this takes effort. Mr. Popper is full of initiative, although he is not as concerned about housecleaning. He is, however, bold to write to Admiral Perry, and regularly finds creative and innovative solutions to the new challenges the penguins bring.
Although not exactly graphic, the penguins’ wrestling is more aggressive (and approved of) than one might expect, given the tone of the rest of the book. Two brother penguins regularly fight with each other, which is encouraged by the rest of the penguins. The Poppers develop this into a “wrestling” act for the stage show. It is more like a boxing match though, where pushing and hitting are approved of and encouraged. The other penguins have a favorite fighter and regularly distract the non-favorite so the favorite can knock him out.
In one scene, the penguins are described as looking silly and girlish while wearing fireman hats.
Mr. Popper kisses his wife hello after returning from work. The only sexual reference in the book is Mrs. Popper’s comment, upon arrival of the female penguin in the mail, that this will soon mean eggs and no more room in the refrigerator for all the penguins (which it does).
Get free discussion questions for this book and others, at FocusOnTheFamily.com/discuss-books.
Spanking: Mrs. Popper “spanks” a penguin once as discipline, and the children follow her example a little later. It’s not a major part of the story. However, she “spanks” the penguin on his head.
Hard work: Living within one’s available means is valued. Cash flow matters, and when finances are tight, the main options are to (1) do without, or (2) find creative ways to earn money by using one’s skill and available resources. The Poppers do go into debt once, but this is seen as an unfortunate necessity rather than an easy convenience. They know that one of their neighbors is being shortchanged until they pay him for his work, and paying him is the first thing they do with the money they earn.
Politeness is held in high regard, as is curiosity. In fact, the two make a rather useful combination. The penguins’ insatiable curiosity causes more than a few problems, but what tends to keep them out of any real trouble is that those around see how very sincere and polite they are while exploring everything.
Producers often use a book as a springboard for a movie idea or to earn a specific rating. Because of this, a movie may differ from the novel. To better understand how this book and movie differ, compare the book review with Plugged In’s movie review for Mr. Popper’s Penguins.
You can request a review of a title you can’t find at [email protected].
Book reviews cover the content, themes and worldviews of fiction books, not their literary merit, and equip parents to decide whether a book is appropriate for their children. The inclusion of a book’s review does not constitute an endorsement by Focus on the Family.
