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A review by amandagstevens
Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard Atwater
2.0
I have a low-key ambition to read all the Newbery books, and this one thankfully didn’t win the medal but did score an honor…somehow. It’s genuinely bad, and not because it’s unrealistic (it’s clearly a comedy from the start).
I wouldn’t hand this one to kids even for fun, because the portrayal of the marriage is just such a mess—and in the spirit of many early Newberys when children’s lit was not necessarily written about children or from their perspective, the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Popper is the primary relationship in this story (or secondary if we’re counting Mr. Popper’s penguin obsession, but that one is a one-way street, so).
Mr. Popper is irresponsible and incompetent, and Mrs. Popper is the only stop-gap between him and utter bankruptcy. Oh, and the starvation or eviction or whatever of their two children. Mrs. Popper points out these things in a fairly gentle fashion yet is portrayed in the first half of the book (before she fully engages with the penguins) as a nag. Several times she comments on the difficulty of keeping her house clean when her husband is at home making messes; her life is so much easier when he is at work. Never once does Mr. Popper pitch in with housework of any kind. He doesn’t clean up after his own self or pets. He is, after all, a man.
Granted, gender roles in 1939 were perceived and enforced exactly like this. The book is merely a “product of its time.” But kiddos don’t need to be reading this example of a clueless irresponsible man getting his way (and ultimately ditching his family while his wife agrees he definitely should ditch them—since she’ll be able to keep the house cleaner without her husband around). There are many, many better children’s books out in the world nowadays.
I wouldn’t hand this one to kids even for fun, because the portrayal of the marriage is just such a mess—and in the spirit of many early Newberys when children’s lit was not necessarily written about children or from their perspective, the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Popper is the primary relationship in this story (or secondary if we’re counting Mr. Popper’s penguin obsession, but that one is a one-way street, so).
Mr. Popper is irresponsible and incompetent, and Mrs. Popper is the only stop-gap between him and utter bankruptcy. Oh, and the starvation or eviction or whatever of their two children. Mrs. Popper points out these things in a fairly gentle fashion yet is portrayed in the first half of the book (before she fully engages with the penguins) as a nag. Several times she comments on the difficulty of keeping her house clean when her husband is at home making messes; her life is so much easier when he is at work. Never once does Mr. Popper pitch in with housework of any kind. He doesn’t clean up after his own self or pets. He is, after all, a man.
Granted, gender roles in 1939 were perceived and enforced exactly like this. The book is merely a “product of its time.” But kiddos don’t need to be reading this example of a clueless irresponsible man getting his way (and ultimately ditching his family while his wife agrees he definitely should ditch them—since she’ll be able to keep the house cleaner without her husband around). There are many, many better children’s books out in the world nowadays.