Summary
The classic Newbery Honor book that inspired the hilarious Jim Carrey movie--and a childhood favorite book for generations.
Mr. Popper's Penguins is one of the handful of American books for children that has attained the status of a classic. A humble house painter is sent a male penguin by the great Admiral Drake and, thanks to the arrival of a female penguin, soon has twelve penguins living in his house. First published in 1938, Mr. Popper's Penguins has amused and enchanted generations of children and their parents.
Summary
Mr. Popper is a lonely, poor house painter obsessed with glacial nature. However, his life is drastically changed when a crate full of penguins arrives at his house.
Richard Atwater was born on December 29, 1892 in Chicago, and educated at the University of Chicago, where he later taught Greek. In addition to teaching, Atwater worked as a book editor and newspaper columnist.
Atwater wrote several books in his lifetime, including Doris and the Trolls and Rickety Rimes of Riq. However, it was his children's book Mr. Popper's Penguins that made him famous. In this story a house painter receives several penguins as a present. He keeps them in his refrigerator and the trouble they create is chronicled in the story.
In 1934, Atwater suffered a stroke. Atwater's wife revised and completed the manuscript. Richard Atwater died on August 21, 1948. Mr. Popper's Penguins won the Newberry Medal in 1939 and the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1958.
(Bowker Author Biography)