ELHQ children’s story update: Emperor penguin recovering after surgery

I read with great relief this week that the Emperor penguin who I based my children’s story on is recovering well after his operation at Wellington zoo. For those of you who don’t know I wrote and illustrated a children’s story last week about a penguin who travels to New Zealand to follow in the footsteps of his grandmother the famous explorer penguin.

I won’t spoil the ending for those who haven’t yet read it or to the narrated audio book, but it’s fair to say that I took a bit of artistic license with some of the details. The real penguin has spent the last few weeks in a Wellington Zoo where it is being kept in a room chilled to about 8C with a bed of ice for it to sleep on. It has recently undergone endoscopic surgery to remove sand from its stomach but is now said to be in a good condition.  You can find out more on the BBC website:

Wellington zoo is appealing for donations to help fund its treatment so please consider giving a little something to support a very good cause. Needless to say if you haven’t yet read or listened to the story then please do (it’s available to view and download here), and let me know what you think by leaving a comment underneath or by sending an email. It’s always great to get some feedback.