Guardians of the Littlest Penguins by Wendy Hinote Lanier (Author) and Sara Aziz (Illustrator)
Little penguins (also known as blue penguin and fairy penguins) may seem like creatures of fiction standing just over a foot tall and living in Australia--but they are quite real. Middle Island, Australia was known for its colony of little penguins. Locals delighted in them, but noticed one summer that they didn't see as many and couldn't find other traces of them. After a sad investigation, they discovered that foxes were now able to get to Middle Island and were preying upon the little penguins. What were the locals to do? After a town meeting, the community decides to introduce two Maremma dogs to Middle Island as protectors for the little penguins. Maremma dogs are big, agreeable, and fluffy dogs bred to protect livestock--but could they learn to protect the little penguins? While some aspects of Guardians of the Littlest Penguins by Wendy Hinote Lanier are fictionalized, the core story of creative thinking to protect an endangered colony of little penguins is ...
