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 7-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 7 Summary: “Captain Cook Builds a Nest”
Mrs. Popper is busy cleaning the kitchen when she realizes that Captain Cook has made multiple trips in and out of his refrigerator. Although Mrs. Popper’s housekeeping has been put off schedule due to the penguin’s arrival, the authors advise that “Captain Cook [i]s now attending to the picking up” (44). He pokes into the corners of every room and scavenges under all the furniture to make a large collection of miscellaneous household objects. One by one, he carries each item into the kitchen and places it in the refrigerator. When Mrs. Popper realizes what Captain Cook is doing, she is astonished and calls Mr. Popper. He explains that the penguin is building a “rookery” (46), or nest, from found items in lieu of Antarctic stones.
In the meantime, Mr. Popper is busy getting himself tidied and quite dressed up. He dons a “white shirt with a white tie and white flannel trousers” (47) in addition to the black evening coat that he wore on his wedding day. He looks like Captain Cook and struts around the kitchen imitating the bird’s walk before asking Mrs. Popper for some of her clothesline rope. He intends to use the clothesline as a leash to walk Captain Cook outdoors.
Chapter 8 Summary: “Penguin’s Promenade”
Mr. Popper’s stroll with Captain Cook is difficult at the beginning because the penguin dislikes the clothesline leash around his neck. Eventually, the bird becomes accustomed to being attached to Mr. Popper’s wrist by the line and the pair proceed. In addition to his tailcoat and white pants, Mr. Popper wears his best Sunday derby. The pair meet a neighbor, Mrs. Callahan, who is frightened when the penguin pecks at the striped stockings peeking out from under her long dress. She thinks that Captain Cook is an “anteater” (52); when Mr. Popper corrects her, she remarks, “Take your South Pole goose away from me at once” (52).
When the penguin sees boric acid crystals in the pharmacy window, he believes that they are piles of snow and pecks at the window. Subsequently, a reporter interviews Mr. Popper for the local newspaper and a photographer takes a picture of Captain Cook and his owner. The photographer thinks that the bird is either a penguin or a dodo. Mr. Popper corrects him and explains the history of how he has obtained his exotic pet—via Admiral Drake from the South Pole. A crowd gathers, and Mr. Popper gets away by bringing his pet into a nearby shop owned by his friend, who is a barber.
Chapters 7-8 Analysis
In a foreshadowing of future events, the authors describe Captain Cook building a rookery in his icebox with various household items. This instinctive behavior, and the damage sustained when the animal is left without a mate in a human environment, is expanded upon in later chapters. Prior to this time, the penguin has largely complied with being trained to appease humans with his behavior; however, this situation cannot last indefinitely. Mr. Popper’s efforts to domesticate the penguin further by walking him on a leash meet with some difficulty; again, these are a precursor to the theme of the futility of expecting a wild animal to successfully adapt to human surroundings.
Conversely, Mr. Popper has started to emulate Captain Cook’s appearance and behavior. He imitates the penguins black and white coloring by donning long, black tuxedo tails and a white shirt and pants. He is described as looking a little “like a penguin” and having “turned and strutted like one […] for Mrs. Popper” (48). Previously described as a humble, artistic individual, Mr. Popper starts enjoying the publicity associated with owning a penguin. He happily explains that the bird was a gift from Antarctic explorer Admiral Drake.
The surname of Drake is associated with the Drake Passage, which is the body of water between South America’s Cape Horn and the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica. It was named for a 16th-century English explorer, Sir Francis Drake. His ship was blown off course after passing through the Strait of Magellan; at that point, he realized that there was an open connection between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in the South Pole region, which was subsequently named after him.
