Although released in New Zealand only last month, this book, subtitled "The odd little bird who saved a family", is already one of my all-time favourites, and I have loaned and read it to various family members who also adored it. There's a powerful combination here: the story of a family tragedy, then a rescue and redemption from the most unlikely quarter - an injured, abandoned magpie chick.
It's a book to warm even the coldest heart and part of its appeal is that it is a true story.
Far more importantly, this is a work of art: stunning photography, combined with carefully sparse writing, all wrapped up with the most curious twist. This is to do with the pace of the story, how photographs and story unfold together and the way each part of the tale is matched.
Australian Cameron Bloom is an internationally acclaimed photographer, his pictures appearing in Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and The New York Times. While he and his family were holidaying in Thailand, his wife Sam suffered a shocking accident that left her paralysed and deeply depressed.
Then Penguin - named by the kids for her black and white plumage - fell out of a towering Norfolk Island pine on to cold asphalt. She is pictured in a variety of poses - with a leg around a toy monkey, holding an exercise bar alongside Sam, atop the boys' heads, standing on a metal kitchen grater while Sam grates a carrot through it, resting in bed with the family, among others.
