A search of Amazon’s birdwatching category for books about penguins turns up more than 200 titles, including Among Penguins by Noah Strycker, Penguin Planet by Kevin Schafer, and The Great Penguin Rescue by Dyan deNapoli, all of which we have recommended in our pages.
If you’re tempted to wonder if the world really needs another book about penguins, don’t. It does, especially when it comes from renowned photographer Tui De Roy and her collaborators Mark Jones and Julie Cornthwaite.
“We wanted to ensure that we would have ample time to become intimately acquainted with every one of the world’s penguin species, no matter how difficult to find,” writes De Roy. After over 15 years documenting all 18 species, they selected more than 400 stunning photos. Readers see a Galapagos Penguin chasing fish near the sea floor, Northern Rockhoppers on a boulder-covered slope, and Snares Penguins on a thick tree branch in a forest.
Woven throughout the first 145 pages of photos is De Roy’s engaging narrative of her encounters with the birds: listening at night to the “mournful, almost melancholic calls” of Galapagos Penguins; crawling on hands and knees in dense thickets to find Fiordland Penguins in New Zealand; and steering an inflatable boat while King Penguins swam alongside and jumped out of the water.
The book also includes insightful essays from 16 penguin researchers about recent discoveries and conservation work, two-page profiles of each species, and tips on where to see wild penguins. As advertised, it is truly the ultimate guide to the world’s penguins.
Penguins: The Ultimate Guide, by Tui De Roy, Mark Jones, and Julie Cornthwaite, Princeton University Press, 240 pages, hardcover, $35
Read more reviews from our December 2014 issue
‘Flying Dinosaurs’ tells the fast-paced story of how dinosaurs became birds.
Two gorgeous picture books reveal Mono Lake and the Everglades.
Two smart books to share about the Passenger Pigeon.
‘Subirdia’ tells why suburbs are good (and bad) for birds.
New edition of National Geographic book delivers verdict on long-sought woodpecker.
Book assembles best essays by popular Massachusetts birder.
Dictionary offers a who’s who of people who lent names to birds.
The latest information on 47 waterfowl species packed into two handsome volumes.
Two volumes present challenges from artists not to forget lost birds.
Books about extinction, birding on both sides of the ocean, and the world’s birds.
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