The Cuteness Quotient: Penguins, Picturebooks, and Environmental Education

This article explores how the aesthetic of cuteness shapes representations of nature in six informational picturebooks about penguins. The analysis addresses the two informational genres – one related to the emperor life cycle and the other to penguin rescue – that dominate the field in the twenty-first century. Whereas the books devoted to the emperor life cycle tend to reject cuteness as a mode inconsistent with scientific observation, those devoted to penguin rescue show its allure as a means, albeit problematic, to stimulate interest and raise awareness of threats to species survival. Within this context, cuteness often obscures the ideological, political, and economic forces driving eco-disaster. By contrast, picturebooks depicting charismatic animals show the value of awe and wonder in teaching respect for the natural environment. Emperor life-cycle narratives examined include Martin Jenkins and Jane Chapman’s The Emperor’s Egg; Sandra Markle and Alan Marks’s A Mother’s Journey; and Nicola Davies and Catherine Rayner’s Emperor of the Ice. Penguin rescue narratives examined include Sophie Cunningham and Anil Tortop’s Flipper and Finnegan: The True Story of How Tiny Jumpers Saved Little Penguins; Marikka Tamura and Daniel Rieley’s Penguins Don’t Wear Sweaters; and Jean Marzollo and Laura Regan’s Pierre the Penguin: A True Story.