How a father emperor penguin survives the Antarctic winter to hatch a single egg, in the award-winning children’s nonfiction book by Martin Jenkins.
A Father’s Vigil in Antarctica
The Emperor’s Egg follows a male emperor penguin through the brutal Antarctic winter as he balances a single egg on his feet for months, keeping it warm through blizzards and freezing darkness while the female is away feeding at sea. Martin Jenkins pairs the science of penguin breeding with a warm, funny narrative voice that has made the book a favorite read-aloud for young naturalists.
Award-Winning Nonfiction
The Emperor’s Egg won the Times Junior Information Book of the Year Award, one of many honors in Jenkins’s decades-long career writing natural history and conservation titles for children, drawn from his own background as a conservation biologist.
Built Around a Single, Sustained Image
The book stretches the father penguin’s months-long vigil into a story with real narrative tension: no food, brutal wind, and constant risk that the egg balanced on his feet will freeze the moment it touches the ice. Jane Chapman’s illustrations keep the tone warm rather than bleak, and the pairing of hard science with a funny, affectionate voice is a big part of why the book has stayed a favorite read-aloud for ages 4 to 8 since it was first published in Candlewick’s Read and Wonder series.
Lasting Recognition
Beyond its Times Junior Information Book of the Year Award, The Emperor’s Egg has been praised by Working Mother, Nick Jr., and School Library Journal, and an animated adaptation of the book was named to ALSC’s Notable Children’s Videos list in 2007. It’s held up well over multiple printings, still handed to kids as an introduction to both penguins and nonfiction storytelling.
