Pengey and the Fishing Net
by
John Burns
Pengey Penguin loves to hang out with his friends, at the duck pond, in New York’s Central Park. There’s a lot more fun and games going on out there than humans are aware of.
Pengey loves to swim in the duck pond and is crazy about the tasty little silver fish he get to eat when he can catch the very fast fish. Sonja Bunny can’t understand how Pengey can eat fish, nor can the rest of his fury vegetarian friends.
On his way home from school one day, Pengey finds a potato sack. He takes it back to Wendy’s apartment and with her help builds a fishing net. Much to the astonishment of all his little animal friends the fishing net actually works.
Pengey is delighted to know that he can catch his favorite fish easily and in great abundance and especially happy that it’s very easy to do. Day after day Pengey over eats.
To the dismay of his friends and himself, Pengey quickly gets fat and lazy, while practically destroying the ecosystem of the duck pond. Before long the air around the duck pond is thick with the same mosquitos that the mosquito fish would have eaten had Pengey not eaten them all.
Could it be the ecological disaster is actually Pengey’ s fault? You’ll find out when you read this funny and fact filled, 35 page short story.
Engages childhood obesity, over fishing and sensible environmental protection.