Book Review
A short overview of this book
The Surfing Penguin by Kim Maslin is a collection of 4 short stories, with each story teaching a different lesson about viewing inappropriate content, cyberbullying, trolling and location services.
All really important conversations that we need to have with our children, to ensure they stay safe but also use the internet in a responsible way.
The stories are short and to the point with reflection questions after each story. These are very helpful for continuing the conversation and talking about how the story fits into your family life.
What I like about this book, is that each story focuses on one lesson. Which means that parents can focus on having an in-depth conversation around the one topic. Instead of talking superficially about many topics.
Kim also has some other books as well, The Tweeting Galah and The Little Possum who Looked Up.
You can learn more on this page, about how to talk to kids about sex education.
Ideal Age
Ideal for children aged 8 to 10 years.
Buy this book
✅ Buy a copy of The Surfing Penguin by Kim Maslin from Amazon.
Video Transcription
A transcription in case you are more of a reader than a listener
Hey there! Welcome to Sex Ed Rescue with Cath Hak. I’m here to chat with you about some awesome books for school-age children that cover media literacy and cyber safety. So, let’s dive right in!
First off, I want to mention that you can find all my videos on my YouTube channel. I love doing book reviews, and today I want to talk about a series of books by Kim Maslin. She’s an Australian author and teacher who has created these stories to help kids understand digital literacy.
Now, as parents, we know that not all schools cover these topics in depth, so it’s important for us to take responsibility and have these conversations at home too. These books are a great tool to help us do just that.
The first book in the series is called The Surfing Penguin. It’s not about porn, but it tackles the topic of how images and sounds on screens can make kids feel uncomfortable. It’s a story about a penguin who watches a scary movie about sharks and has bad dreams. The penguin learns to talk to their mom about their feelings and how to make sure they watch safer movies in the future. It’s a great way to start a conversation about pornography with your kids.
The next book is about online bullying. It’s called The Quaker and the Mean Comments. It tells the story of a Quaker (a cute little kangaroo-like creature) who posts a picture online and receives mean comments. The Quaker’s parents help them handle the situation by taking screenshots of the comments, deleting them, and discussing it with a coach. The book teaches kids the importance of being kind online and standing up against bullying.
Then we have The Trolling Echidna. This story is about a group of animals playing a game where one of them starts trolling and pushing others around. The other animals get upset and call out the troll, teaching them that their actions hurt others. It’s a great lesson on empathy and understanding the impact of our online behavior.
Lastly, there’s The Banana’s Geolocation Mistake. This book focuses on the importance of keeping personal details private online. It tells the story of a bunch of bananas who take photos during a camping trip and unknowingly share them with geolocation tags. This leads to some unwanted visitors trashing their campsite. The bananas learn from their mistake and find ways to prevent it from happening again.
I really love these books because each story addresses a specific lesson, making it easy to have conversations with your kids about cyber safety. They’re a fantastic resource for teaching digital literacy and media literacy.
So, if you’re looking for engaging and educational books to help your kids navigate the online world, I highly recommend checking out Kim Maslin’s series. I’m excited to see what she comes up with next!
I hope this review has been helpful. If you have any questions or need further guidance, feel free to reach out. Cheers!
