Parapenguins: And Other Videoville Animal Stories

By Merv Lambert

Videoville is an unusual town where many movies are made, but not all of the animals who live there are friendly. Take Mr. Rockhopper, for example. He can be one angry penguin. Skidder, probably the fastest penguin in the West, can be relied on to be careless, but his small friend Pudden can amaze you. As for Skidder’s sister, Trendy Wendy, she often sets the fashion for the younger members of the town. Also meet the Hatopotamus, Buster Gutter, the stunt bear, Mewsli, the cat detective, Myrtle Turtle, and many more surprisingly talented animals... We must not ignore the humans either. Is Slim, the cowboy, to blame for the Umbrella War? Only you can decide, and lastly don’t forget to read about the Parapenguins...

• Language: English
• Publisher: AUK Kids
• Release date: Jul 19, 2011
• ISBN: 9781849895392

Book preview

1988.

The Penguin Who Wanted to Fly

It was nice living in Penguin Village. This was part of the city of Videoville with glorious houses next to a glorious beach. Nearly all the penguins working in films lived there, and Skidder’s father was a very famous actor and film star. Everyone had heard of Audley. Of course none of the stunts he performed in his films were real. When he hung from a jump-jet or a helicopter hovering just above the skyscrapers or mountains, clinging onto a cable with his beak and with his flippers taped behind his back, or when he dived from a two hundred feet high rock into a foaming pool full of sharks and shot them all with an enormous harpoon machine-gun that he just happened to have handy, none of it was real. He went through the various actions required and the rest was put in by the Special F.X. department, or Special Effects to give it its correct title.

Audley Saving the World

Audley liked things to be just perfect and had earned himself the nickname of Nice-and-Audley. In fact Skidder, his son, did not find him particularly easy to live with. He was quite strict at home. For instance he had not approved of Skidder’s attempt to send an e-mail thank you message to his grandma. As always Skidder had been in a great hurry to get the job done. What he had intended to say was, Dear Gran, thank you for my presents. I am sorry that I’m a bit late with my letter, but I forgot, as I was out playing at the beach on some rocks. Being in such a hurry, he only managed to touch a few of the keys on the keyboard of his computer, and his poor grandma was very surprised to receive his message, which read, Dear Gran, I …ate my s..ocks. Love, Skidder.

Obviously Skidder was not your usual sort of penguin. You would have said that his friend Pudden was more the normal type. Whereas Pudden was slightly tubby and a little clumsy, Skidder was sleek and fast. In fact he was so fast that his friends could never keep up with him. He was always in a hurry. If his mother, Polly, asked him to post a letter, he would zip out of the house and around the corner, amazingly avoiding anyone else on the street, pop the letter in the mail-box and zoom back into the house again, so that his mother would repeat, Skidder, just go and post this letter for me, and he would reply, But, ma, I’ve already done it! Then his mother would give a big sigh. "Why don’t you learn to slow down a bit? I wish you were a bit more like Pudden. He takes his time.

Pudden

Yeah. He’s so cool and laid-back, nothing ever bothers him, Skidder would reply.

However, he was wrong. There was something bothering Pudden, but it was not Skidder who