Poster Penguin

Paula Xiberras

The name Wendy first entered the English language as a creation by James Barrie, in the magical story of Peter Pan. And the name suits Wendy McLennan perfectly, Wendy has created a magical story of her own about the very special penguin Pinto in her new book ‘Pinto and the Nella Dan’ recounting the story of the shipwrecked vessel, This story has a difference to other recounts of the Nella Dan in that one of the observers is Pinto, a robotic penguin.

Wendy’s book however, although magical, has a firm basis of real science behind it. Wendy’s protagonist, penguin Pinto is a robot created to aid scientists on an expedition to Macquarie Island.

When I speak to her Wendy is back from a presentation at Scotch Oakburn College. Wendy tells me that the children at the school responded amazingly to her discussion. Wendy took along some props, Antarctic clothing, a model Pinto penguin, and a video on the campaign to end rabbits rule on Macquarie Island. This very visual presentation captured the children’s interest which is just what Wendy, an experienced scientist /educator herself, who has worked for some years in Antarctica wanted to do.

Wendy is aiming to continue Pinto’s adventures in further books and has chatted to Brendan McMahon the ABC news weather man to instruct her in the science of weather balloons and don’t be surprised to see Pinto being an innovator for penguins and taking flight in one of those balloons swapping the usual ‘underwater’ penguin flying for flying of the ariel kind. Penguin movements underwater described as ‘flying’ is just another of the amazing facts Wendy gently incorporates into her novel.

Pinto, the robot penguin, Wendy tells me, is meant to be symbolic of a child with a clean slate, eager to learn and absorb data which he does,as a poster penguin for the digital age. There is a twist to Pinto’s robotic status as by error in his programming he has managed to incorporate emotion into his robotic self to give him some very human qualities. Also, like a child Pinto tends to rush into things without considering the consequences and Wendy hopes his actions and their consequences will make children consider carefully before they jump into any course of action.

Wendy has also been careful not to label everything scientific in the novel, instead she gently informs about science fact in,an incidental way,such as when Pinto gets close to being swallowed by a whale and his owner Dave tells him that there was no danger of him being eaten as the whales ‘baleens’ would throw him out.

We also learn about the process of ‘scuttling’ as the main story of the book is the that of the Nella Dan and its shipwreck on Macquarie Island.

With her scientific background Wendy has many more adventures for Pinto lined up including adventures on the Galapagos searching for his mother and father and other adventures that offer opportunities to explore scenarios such as the tectonic plates under Macquarie Island that might see Pinto learn in a very confronting way about earthquakes.

Wendy also wants to help children learn about issues of conservation by encouraging them to discover that penguin chicks are now in short supply due in part to the over fishing of krill which forms part of their diet. Absence of krill means it can impact on penguin movements as they need to travel to search for food for their young. Macquarie Island’s tendency to collect flotsam and jetsam and the ensuing environmental questions this throws up (pardon the pun) lends itself to discussion on the issues of climate change and greenhouse warming.

Also that long line and trawl fishing are factors in the albatross’s diminishing presence on Macquarie Island. Wendy is keen to explore these issues and more but. rather than giving all the answers she wants to pose questions and encourage people to seek out the answers themselves.

Perhaps one of the wonderful things about Pinto is his positivity which we all could learn from, and is illustrated in one scene where Pinto talks about humans always worrying about the weather . What the weather turns out to be doesn’t concern him he’s just ‘happy to be alive’.

Look also in the next book for some further friendship and ‘romance’ between Pinto and fellow penguin Rosie.

Wendy’s book ‘Pinto and the Nella Dan’, beautifully illustrated by Catriona Maclaine is available now.