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A review by kitsuneheart
Virgil & Owen by Paulette Bogan
4.0
Man, that polar bear is far from home. They're not even on the same pole as penguins....
But, anyways. This is a simple story about treating your friends well, and not being possessive. Virgil the penguin treats Owen the polar bear more like a pet than another intelligent animal, throwing tantrums whenever the bear plays with anyone else. He finally comes around in the end, but I particularly like that there's an entire two-page spread where Virgil is just laying in the snow after having stomped around. He's getting time to calm himself, and that's a pretty good message to send to kids. Sometimes we get angry, but if we take a break, we can bring ourselves back.
For me, this isn't anywhere near an award-winning story, but it was nice. I always want picture books about wild animals to end with some sort of blurb about the actual animals, though, and this lacks that. I have a sequel book to this in my possession, so maybe I'll get lucky there.
But, anyways. This is a simple story about treating your friends well, and not being possessive. Virgil the penguin treats Owen the polar bear more like a pet than another intelligent animal, throwing tantrums whenever the bear plays with anyone else. He finally comes around in the end, but I particularly like that there's an entire two-page spread where Virgil is just laying in the snow after having stomped around. He's getting time to calm himself, and that's a pretty good message to send to kids. Sometimes we get angry, but if we take a break, we can bring ourselves back.
For me, this isn't anywhere near an award-winning story, but it was nice. I always want picture books about wild animals to end with some sort of blurb about the actual animals, though, and this lacks that. I have a sequel book to this in my possession, so maybe I'll get lucky there.