Pirate Penguin is an adventure story with themes of friendship, working together and being yourself.
Flipper doesn’t want to be a penguin anymore, but when adventure comes floating inside a message in a bottle, Flipper jumps at the chance to be someone else. Will Flipper’s new pirate identity be enough to face the mean leopard seals? Or will they figure out that being brave is more about accepting who they are?
Join Flipper and their crew as they overcome a 12 tentacled sea-monster, a swirling, whirling whirlpool and the terrifying leopard seals!
The author is 10-year-old Hunter, who was inspired to write a book about not fitting in and finding yourself after going through similar experiences at school. After visiting the Natural History Museum and drawing a chinstrap penguin, Hunter decided their main character would be a penguin. Hunter is passionate about nature and the planet so also managed to fit in some cool penguin facts and further information on how to protect penguin species.
Pirate Penguin includes non-gendered characters and is printed with Dyslexia friendly font Dyslexie. Hunter specifically wrote the story without gendered pronouns because they feel that more picture books should have the flexibility for children to make their own minds up about the identity of the characters, and it gets grown-ups used to non-binary pronouns. Hunter's dad is dyslexic, so they were thrilled to hear that there was a more accessible font for dyslexic readers.
Reviews from other authors:
“A rip-roaring, swashbuckling adventure filled with hope, heart and humour” – Ian Eagleton, author of Nen and the Lonely Fisherman
“This is a very special book” – LD Lapinski, author of the Strangeworlds series and Jamie
