"All aboard for a p-p-p-perfect picture book voyage in the company of a colony of penguins who embark on a hide-and-seek mystery adventure on the high seas."
October 2025 Debut of the Month
Billed as a “seek and find adventure”, Haluka Nohana‘s Welcome to the Penguin Cruise is a work of multi-layered picture book joy. In part the story of a penguin family taking a dream cruise aboard Oceano Penguino, it’s also a fun interactive adventure that invites little ones to search for missing treasure.
Throughout, detailed cross-section illustrations offer windows into the Oceano Penguino’s five storeys — much like classic Richard Scarry books, there’s so much to spot across the vessel’s twenty-four rooms, which include cabins and kitchens, plus a dance floor, movie theatre, games room and pool. While each image suggests a multitude of stories, the theft of The Golden Mermaid sits centre-stage through the book. At the same time, in between following the overriding mystery of the missing mermaid, readers will delight in joining little Chibi Pengi on a trip to Turtle Isle and seeing the penguins dressed in their finery at a fancy ball ahead of reaching their final destination, Guana Island, having made “sparkling memories” which are “precious, precious treasures”.
With so much to spot on every page, Welcome to the Penguin Cruise is the kind of endlessly entertaining picture book that welcomes readers back into its arms time and time again — no two voyages are ever the same aboard the good ship Oceano Penguino!
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