83 pages • 2 hours read
Richard Atwater, Florence AtwaterMr. Popper's Penguins
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1938A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 17-18Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 17 Summary: “Fame”
The penguins become so popular that crowds of people wait in line at theaters to buy tickets to their show. An opera singer appearing at the same theater as the birds in Minneapolis is upset about appearing on the same bill as the birds: “[S]he refused to go on the stage unless the penguins were put away” (116). Although the Poppers remove their pets, the birds sneak up through another staircase and appear in the orchestra pit with the musicians. Mr. Popper is worried about disturbing the musicians while trying to retrieve the animals, but Mrs. Popper and the children are able to catch them. The birds feel very guilty when they see Mrs. Popper, so they run up on stage and hide under the opera singer’s skirts.
The family and their birds are now on the Pacific coast, and they have lived in hotels for almost five months. Some hotelkeepers object to the penguins staying in their rooms but always reverse themselves when they see how pleased the other guests are to watch the animals. Although the Poppers have earned a great deal of money while touring, they also have many expenses, such as hotel rentals, taxi fares, restaurant meals, and the cost of “huge cakes of ice brought up to their hotel rooms, to cool the penguins” (119). In exchange for Mr. Popper’s testimonial for Owens’ Oceanic Shrimp, the company provides free canned seafood for the penguins. Although spinach growers and breakfast oats producers ask for Mr. Popper’s recommendation, too, the penguins refuse to eat these foods. Mr. Popper refuses to lie and say that they had because he is an honest person.
The tour brings the group to Boston in the spring, but it is very warm. Mr. Popper arranges to have thousand pound blocks of ice brought to his rooms. He is happy that the tour is almost over because he feels that the penguins are becoming cranky.
Chapter 18 Summary: “April Winds”
It is very hot when the tour reaches New York, and the penguins feel poorly. Mr. Popper brings them to the roof garden of the Tower Hotel to cool them with the breeze. He gets very nervous when he sees the young penguins crowding near the edge of the roof and shoving each other, so he brings the birds back to the hotel room and bathes them in cool showers all night.
Consequently, Mr. Popper is quite drowsy the following morning. He tells a cabdriver to bring the family and the birds to the Regal Theater. The driver asks if the penguins will be on the same stage as “Swenson’s Seals,” but Mr. Popper is distracted and replies that he does not know who else will perform.
When they enter the theater, Mr. Swanson warns the Poppers that his seals would “think nothing of eating two or three penguins apiece” (125). Mrs. Popper suggests that her husband find the cabs and have them drive the penguins around until it is their turn to perform, in order to keep them safe, but the cabdrivers have already left the theater. There is a great uproar in the theater when the penguins discover the seals; all the animals climb a stairway to a dressing room. Mr. Popper follows in an attempt to protect his pets while the children call the Fire Department and the Police. When the firemen arrive, they are surprised to find “six black-mustached seals, sitting barking in the middle of the room, with twelve penguins parading gaily around them in a square” (127). The firemen put their helmets on the penguins, so the policemen put their caps on the seals. Mr. Popper is very relieved that the penguins are safe.
Suddenly, the theater manager bursts into the room and tells the police that he has an arrest warrant for Mr. Popper. He accuses him of throwing his theater into a panic, stating, “[Y]ou haven’t any business” here. Mr. Popper has made an error; his penguins were supposed to appear at the Royal Theater, not the Regal.
Chapters 17-18 Analysis
The penguins continue to perform and engage in endearing antics. When they upset an opera singer, they run away from Mrs. Popper because they “felt very guilty” (117). Attributing human emotions to animals in this way is known as anthropomorphism. While the birds may have sensed Mrs. Popper’s upset, it is unlikely that they truly experience a sense of guilt.
The subject of finances is revisited in this section. Although the Poppers are being paid handsomely to tour with their pets, their expenses are very high and include hotel fees, taxi fares, and the purchase of ice blocks to cool the birds. Additionally, Mr. Popper demonstrates his kindheartedness once again by exhibiting his concern for the penguins. When the group visits New York City during a heat wave, he tries to cool the birds on a hotel roof garden; however, he is terrified when they crowd near the edge as he fears they may fall over. He takes them off the roof immediately: He had “never forgotten how badly frightened he had been when Captain Cook had been so ill […] He could not risk the chance of losing one of his penguins now” (124).
Mr. Popper exhibits the same concern when he mistakenly brings the birds to the wrong theater and they meet up with a group of performing seals. In Antarctica, seals prey upon penguins. When the penguins begin “parading gaily” (127) around the barking seals and the Fire Department and Police Department put their hats on the animals, Mr. Popper experiences relief “so great that for a moment he could not speak” (127). This episode ends with Mr. Popper’s arrest for inadvertently disturbing the peace, but this error is the result of his exhaustion from caring for the animals coupled with his normal absentmindedness.
