Jeanne Willis - Penguin Pandemonium - Christmas Crackers

For Kelly and Dan. Happy Christmas xx

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

Dedication For Kelly and Dan. Happy Christmas xx

Chapter One: In the Bleak Midwinter

Chapter Two: Jingle Bells

Chapter Three: Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Chapter Four: We Wish You a Merry Christmas

Chapter Five: Bring Us Some Figgy Pudding

Chapter Six: Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Chapter Seven: Oh, Christmas Tree

Chapter Eight: Away in a Manger

Chapter Nine: Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

Chapter Ten: The First Noel

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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 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!

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.

She had only got as far as Big Paulie’s Palace when she stumbled across Waldo and his friends, the Arty Party Penguins. They were trying to clear snow away from Paulie the boss’s front step. Unfortunately there was no shovel, so they had to make do with a trowel and a pogo stick that Wesley and Warren took turns on, jumping up and down to break the ice.

“That’s the way, boys!” said Waldo. “Imagine you’re astride a pneumatic drill.”

He waved cheerily at Paulie. The mighty emperor penguin was pacing up and down behind the palace window with his baby niece and nephew, Oo-Chi and Ku-chi, hanging off his flippers.

“Don’t worry, sir, we’ll soon have you out!” shouted Waldo.

“Dig faster!” mouthed Big Paulie. “These kids are doing my head in.”

Blue smiled. Paulie was the best boss the penguins could ever have. He’d been in charge since the day he arrived from the Antarctic and they all feared and respected him – all except for the emperor chicks, who never gave him a moment’s peace.

“Unky Pooey, uth wanth to go out-thide now !” squealed Oo-Chi.

“Me ith going to make a big fat thnowball,” cheeped Ku-Chi.

Just then, Warren did an extra hard bounce on the pogo stick, a big chunk of ice fell away from the door and, to Paulie’s great relief, he was free. His immediate concern was for the other penguins – were any of them trapped inside their hutches?

“We freed the fairy penguins earlier,” said Wesley. “We could hear Muriel screeching from the other side of the pool.”

“Rory is still trapped,” said Blue.

Waldo picked up his trowel. “I can’t bear to think of that sweet boy missing his breakfast squid,” he frowned. “Lead on, Miss Blue. Arty Party Penguins to the rescue!”

But, by the time they’d staggered back, Rory was waiting for them outside with his rockhopper mates, Eddie and Clive.

“Hey, Blue,” he grinned, “what took you so long?”

Blue looked around. There was no sign of a spade. “How did you escape, Rory?”

“Brolly power,” he said.

Eddie and Clive had managed to dig him out with the pointy end of an umbrella that they’d borrowed from the brown bears who overlooked the penguin pool. As usual, the bears insisted on taking all the credit.