MR. POPPER'S PENGUINS

Plot Summary

     Mr. Popper is a small town painter that live meagerly with his wife and two kids. He only works for half of the year and the other half he spends sitting on his chair with a book about Antarctic explorations and a globe. He dreams of being an explorer himself. He reads all day long about Admiral Drake and his expeditions to the Antarctic. His favorite thing to read about is the penguins; he loves the penguins. Well as the summer turns to fall and he begins to get bored without work, he decides to write Admiral Drake a letter asking him about his expeditions. A few weeks later, while listening to Admiral Drake's radio show, he gets his response. Admiral Drake addresses Mr. Popper directly and tells him that he sent him a special present. Mr. Popper can't believe it, he's so curious to find out what he got.

     He finds out a few weeks later when a large package is delivered to his door. He opens it to find a large chunk of ice, and sitting on that ice was A PENGUIN! He was too excited. He named him Captain Cook after the man that first discovered the Antarctic. Captain Cook quickly becomes part of the family. They get their freezer turned into a makeshift home for the penguin. He is a big deal around town and he and Mr. Popper become something of local celebrities. Most people are afraid of Captain Cook because they've never seen a penguin before. A few weeks after his arrival, Captain Cook starts to get depressed. He's all alone and penguins are social creatures. Mr. Popper writes to the local zoo's to see what he can do to help. He gets a response a few days later in the form of another box, and in it another penguin with a note describing how this penguin was depressed too because she was all alone. Her name was Greta. Captain Cook gets better and before you know it Greta has laid 10 eggs.

     Now there are 12 penguins, all have been given their own names, and all have their names painted on their back, because penguins are pretty hard to tell apart. This presents a problem to Mr. Popper. His work in the warm months barely make him enough money to last the winter months, and now with needing to buy fish for these penguins, as well as turning his basement into a penguin habitat, he is running out of money. He decides to teach his penguins to perform and take them on the road.

     While on the road he and the penguins are very successful and they make a great deal of money. Unfortunately for Mr. Popper, the penguins aren't designed to live in summer climates. They begin to get sick. Now Mr. Popper has to have large quantities of ice delivered to their hotel room and that is quickly depleting their cash. While in New York, for their last show, Mr. Popper is introduced to Admiral Drake who tells him about his newest expedition to the North Pole. He tells him that he wants to take Mr. Popper's penguins with him because their training and high intellect will make them the best candidates to start a new population of penguins on the north pole, where there aren't any. Mr. Popper decides that that would be the best for them and agrees to let them go. As they are leaving Admiral Drake informs Mr. Popper that he needed to go with them to the North pole because the penguins needed Mr. Popper. He said goodbye to his wife and kids and boarded the ship, finally realizing his goal of become an explorer like Admiral Drake.

     This book should be considered contemporary realistic fiction because the content could realistically happen. The reason it's contemporary and not historical is becuase the time period is never specified and, even though it's pretty easy to infer that it happened in the 20's or 30's, the time is not an important theme of the book, which is a stipulation of something being considered historical.

Textual Elements

1. Plot-The book has an interesting plot progression. I guess if I had to label it I would call it linear. There is not climax and the story pretty much stays even keel. I guess there are some rising actions, like when they first receive Captain Cook, and when all of the mishaps happen while they are touring, but other than that the story is pretty continuously happy and even and slightly rising. 
2. Setting- The setting of the majority of the story is identified on the very first page of the story. They identify it as "the pleasant little city of Stillwater". More specifically the story takes place inside the Popper's home. The home setting is first identified on page 7 of the story as "432 Proudfoot Avenue". As the story procedes the setting changes to the locations that they are performing.
3. Characters- There are several main characters in the story. First is Mr. Popper. He is the first character written about on page 3 and is described as a "rather untidy man", and "a dreamer". The next main character is Mrs. Popper who we first hear about on page 5. We also hear about his two children Janie and Bill who also are considered important characters. The final main character is Captain Cook, the first penguin they receive. He is first identified as Captain Cook on page 21. The rest of the penguins are certainly characters in the book, but not very big ones.
4. Point of view- The book has a strait forward Third Person Point of View. We see that in the very first page where the narrator talks about Mr. Popper as he's walking home. Throughout the story we see what is going on, and learn how the characters are feelings through the voice of the narrator.
5. Theme- If I had to pick a theme I would say that it has to do with keeping your dreams alive, because they could always come true. Mr. Popper is a dreamer that has dreamed his whole life of becoming a famous Explorer. He continues to dream even though he's older and has a job and kids and responsibilities. Because he kept dreaming his dreams eventually come true and I think the book is telling kids not to give up on their dreams, because anything can happen.

Artistic Elements  

Now I was just going to erase this section, since the book only has a few pictures in it, but after looking through it again I think the pictures play a big role in the effectiveness of the book. The book is silly, and whimsical, and all of those fluffy, fun words. Unfortunately the book can only do so much. There are several scenes in this book that are crazy, and with

words alone you'd only get half the picture. The insertion of strategically placed pictures makes the goofy scenes much more goofy, and the funny scenes much funnier. Take the image below. That scene is showing the penguins coming out on stage while the high-wire act is performing. They give him such a fright that he falls from the rope and has to catch himself. This scene wouldn't be nearly as comical without the image of these penguins looking dumbly at the performer. The pictures don't play a huge role in the book, but they add just the right touch to make the story that much better.

Analysis and Critique

     I'm assuming that this section wants to critique the overall effectiveness of the work. I thought the book was very effective. In my opinion the book was merely to entertain, since it didn't have much of a theme or prevalent idea to get across. In that regard it was a huge success. I was thuroughly entertained when I read this book as a child and I was again entertained when I read this book as an adult. The book was well written and the illustrations were simple yet very effective. What I like about this book is that it doesn't have really any heavy undertones. Many of the books written during this time have racial or sexist undertones that take away from the joy of the book. This book really has none of that. Granted there is the "mother as housewife" image in this story but it isn't sexist because she very obviously wears the pants in the relationship. Overall the book was light, and airy and fun and the lack of deep commentary made it that much more enjoyable.

Citation

Atwater, Richard and Florence. Mr. Poppers Penguins. New York. Little, Brown and Company. 1938