Jonathan Chester – författare

The more you find out about penguins, the more they seem to have in common with another oddly endearing flightless biped. Namely, us. --Flipping Brilliant

Think March of the Penguins meets Life''s Little Instruction Book by way of National Geographic.

Award-winning nature photographer Jonathan Chester captures the essence of the Antarctic''s most popular residents to illustrate the similarities between penguins'' lives and our own. Patrick Regan''s clever narrative offers surprising insights and humorously entertaining life lessons.

The appeal of penguins is undeniable and universal. And we can learn a lot from these fat, funny birds. Lessons like: 

* The meek sleep alone,

* It''s better to be smart than cute, and

* You can be too thin. (After all, the book explains, if the Olsen twins ever get locked in a walk-in cooler for days and are forced to live off their own body fat, they''re goners. Penguins? They''re good for months.)

Flipping Brilliant includes helpful environmental information about the penguin habitat and the effects of global warming, including Web sites that show how you can help.

Anyone who''s ever been in love knows that this supreme emotion changes everything. When love is real, it sometimes feels like gravity itself doesn''t quite apply. In To Love Is to Fly, this magical and powerful journey is told through photographer Jonathan Chester''s stunning photography of penguins, along with refreshingly heartfelt prose.

To Love Is to Fly is written from a me-to-you perspective, making it a great gift for spouse, partner, or main squeeze. Highlights include an image key denoting the type of penguin, environmental features, location details, online resource links, and facts about the different species in each photo.

With their upright stance and bemused expressions, penguins are the most humanlike of birds. Like us, they sacrifice for their families, are mostly monogamous, and must adapt to survive in a rapidly changing world.

Also like us, it''s impossible for them to fly.

But doesn''t love make anything possible?

"The obstacle is the path." "Live the life in front of you." "Be Still. Stay Chill."  What better creature to teach us to live in the moment and be flexible and chill out (so we won't flip out!) than the biped birds at the bottom of the earth? Penguins are intuitive, practical, and cooperative; they naturally know the art of keeping chill.  Jonathan Chester's renowned penguin photography whimsically illustrates the sage Zen wisdom presented here in every enlightened spread.   With their preternatural composure, it’s easy to imagine penguins as little Zen masters. They are patient, tolerant, aware of their surroundings, and live in the moment…all tenets of the Zen philosophy. A penguin’s life is not an easy life, and yet the Zen masters of the Antarctic waddle on. What can they teach us? As this little book shows, quite a lot actually.  "To endow animals with human emotions has long been a scientific taboo.  But if we do not, we risk missing something fundamental, about both animals and us."—Frans de Waal