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Popper, who is fascinated with expeditions to far off places, has written a letter to Admiral Drake, who is exploring Antarctica. On a broadcast, Drake says hello to Popper and tells him that there is a surprise coming his way. As house painting season has come to an end, Popper can do little but wonder what the surprise might be. Naturally, it’s a penguin.

That the penguin is sent by a standard courier in a big wooden crate kind of stretches credibility, even if it’s exactly how such a thing would be shipped. The story gets a little surreal from there. The concept of an out of work house painter hanging out with an exotic pet in a simple, suburban home is quaint and enjoyable. The plot arc is pretty basic. The penguin is evidently quite lonely. Mr. Popper writes a letter to the curator of a large aquarium to ask him for advice. The curator then sends him another penguin - one that had seemed inconsolable.

With two penguins together, the pair mate and before long there’s a huge family that strains the budget of an out of work housepainter. The penguins are enlisted to help out by forming a vaudeville-style performing penguins act. In an era without You Tube, live performing penguins become a huge hit. Popper is contacted by a man involved in the fledgling 1930s film industry. He wants to make penguin movies. Just as Popper is considering this offer he gets contacted by Admiral Drake, who wants to bring the penguins to the Arctic Circle, giving Popper an important decision to make.

It’s not difficult to imagine the story capturing the imaginations of kids during the Great Depression, World War II and so on, but the story loses some of its impact with the proliferation of TV nature programs that would’ve allowed even those not able to regularly visit a world-class zoo or public aquarium to see a more realistic portrayal of the real thing.

The story arc of the book isn’t terribly well-constructed and aside from a slightly larger vocabulary than one might find in most children’s fare, the prose style itself is actually kind of weak. The appeal here is definitely the penguins, though they are never described in great detail. If there is a kind of genius in the text of the book, it’s the fact that it delivers just enough description to capture the imagination without delivering so much that it hampers enjoyment of the story. The book got to be the classic it is by presenting cute, exotic birds in a suburban domestic setting and standing far enough back to let the reader think about all of the strange possibilities of penguins being treated as pets. There may not be much to it, but the simple, iconic feel of the story has been strong enough to carry it through several decades of popularity.

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