Blubber is a good name for her, the note from Wendy says about Linda. Jill crumples it up and leaves it on the corner of her desk. She doesn’t want to think about Linda or her dumb report on the whale just now. Jill wants to think about Halloween.

But Robby grabs the note, and before Linda stops talking it has gone halfway around the room.

That’s where it all starts. There’s something about Linda that makes a lot of kids in her fifth-grade class want to see how far they can go — but nobody, least of all Jill, expects the fun to end where it does.

A New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year

The Unusual Penguin, is a sweet smart narrative for every child and adult who has felt different or strange or who just simply is not like the other people around them.

Inspired by the authors’ own journey as an “Unusual Penguin” and by the journey she watched her son embark on as early as three years old, this story captures the pain of being misjudged, the sorrow that can arise out of being atypical and the transcendent joy that can be found when you discover who you truly are and learn to value yourself accordingly.