Annotated Bibliography-A Mother's Journey

Markle, Sandra. (2005). Illustrated by Alan Marks. A mother’s journey. Watertown, MA:
Charlesbridge. 32 pages. ISBN-13:978-1-57091-621-2

Grade: 2nd-4th

Credibility of author: The author acknowledges the National Science Foundation for making it possible for her to explore Antarctica. She also acknowledges Dr. Gerald Kooyman, professor emeritus at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, who specializes in the diving behavior of emperor penguins.

Summary: This book begins with a female emperor penguin laying her first egg. Then, her mate takes over the job of keeping the egg warm while she joins a line of female emperor penguins as they journey off across Antarctica to the open sea in search for food. Once the mother penguin has fed, it’s a race against time to get back home and feed her newly hatched chick.

Standards: Life Science IV: Environment and Ecology

Access features: Author’s note, facts section, resources

Use: This would be a good read aloud for younger children. Third and fourth grade children could read this book independently. This would be a good book to use when researching emperor penguins due to the amount of information presented in the story, as well as, the websites and facts listed on the last page.

Response: I absolutely loved this book! Not only did I learn new information about emperor penguins, I was amazed at the struggle these cuddly creatures go through for their babies.

Related texts: The emperor lays an egg by Brenda Guiberson would be a great book to read following A Mother’s Journey because it details the baby penguin’s life from birth to adulthood. The Emperor’s Egg would be another good one to follow this book because it describes what the male experiences for two months while incubating the egg. Two other great books are Penguins: From Emperors to Macaronis by Erin Pembrey Swan and Penguin Chick by Betty Tatham.