Sergio Makes a Splash! by Edel Rodriguez (Little, Brown, $15.99, 9780316066167/0316066168, 40 pp., ages 4-8, May)
What does one do with a bird born to swim who won't? Why, encourage him to overcome his anxiety, of course! As Sergio's penguin peers coax him to come on in, the water's fine, youngsters will feel the lure, too. A palette of just four colors--black and white, naturally; a blue that children will instantly recognize as the chlorine-tinted color of their backyard and neighborhood pools, and life-preserver orange--lends the tale a retro feel despite its timeless topic, and suggests that this has been a struggle for generations of timid swimmers. In the first picture book he has both written and illustrated, Rodriguez (Oye, Celia!; Float Like a Butterfly) gets the pacing just right, as he shows the penguin's pals enumerating the things he loves ("fishies, . . . a cold bath"), all of which may be found in the depths of the Antarctic Ocean. In the tense moment after Sergio takes the plunge, the penguin hero is completely submerged, with nary a bubble as evidence of his presence on the full-bleed spread of pristine pool-blue; only a small orange sun in the upper right corner presides over the scene (as, offstage, "Sergio's friends and Mrs. Waddle watch and wait"). In the next spread, Sergio surfaces in a cascade of froth. Children will identify with the hesitant penguin's fear and cheer him on as he conquers it in triumph.--Jennifer M. Brown