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Mr. Popper’s Penguins · Garden Heights
Part 7
for Mr. Popper’s Penguins · Part 7 · Chapters 16–17
8 Parts40 min
What Happens in Part 7
The tour begins — and America has never seen anything like it. The Popper family and twelve penguins ride trains from city to city, checking into grand hotels where the birds fill bathtubs, race down corridors, and solemnly ride the elevators while bellboys stare. In every town the act plays to packed houses, and in every town the penguins find new ways to make headlines offstage — for wherever twelve curious birds go, commotion follows. Onstage they are troupers; they even have a habit of wandering into OTHER performers’ acts, upstaging singers and acrobats to the audience’s roaring delight. But the road has a hidden enemy: heat. Warm theaters and warmer cities leave the Antarctic performers panting, and the family fights a constant battle for ice, cold baths, and cool dressing rooms. Week by famous week, the tour rolls on — money flowing in at last — while Mr. Popper begins to notice what the heat is quietly telling him: his penguins are wonderful performers, and they do not belong here.
What We Will Learn
Section
What you will practice
Vocabulary
Words of travel and fame: commotion, corridor, upstage, trouper, celebrity…
Literary Elements
Episodic structure, escalating fame, and the shadow under the triumph
Cross-Curricular
Why heat endangers penguins, and what touring life was really like
Chapter Summary
Ch.
What happens
16
On the Road — trains, hotels, bathtubs, and elevators: twelve penguins turn every stop into a headline.
17
Fame — and Heat — packed houses and upstaged co-stars, while warm theaters begin to wear on the Antarctic performers.
Part 1
Vocabulary
Study 10 key words from Chapters 16–17, then answer each question.
🧠Knowledge Bank · Why Warm Places Are Dangerous
Content · Penguin SurvivalA penguin’s thick feathers and layer of fat keep it cozy in freezing seas, but that same warm coat becomes a danger in a heated room. Because a penguin cannot easily cool itself, too much heat makes it miserable and even sick. This is real polar science, and it shadows the whole tour. As Mr. Popper’s penguins travel from theater to theater, someone must keep them cold, hauling ice and worrying over every stuffy hall. What looks like a simple show is really a constant fight against warmth. The penguins that once drooped from loneliness now face a very different threat — the cozy indoor world of people. For a creature built for the Antarctic, comfort and survival both depend on staying cold.
commotionn.Ch.16
Noisy confusion and excitement
“Twelve penguins in a hotel lobby caused a joyful commotion.”
corridorn.Ch.16
A long hallway in a building
“The birds raced one another down the hotel corridor.”
berthn.Ch.16
A bed on a train or ship
“Each penguin was assigned a berth on the night train.”
celebrityn.Ch.17
A famous person — or bird
“By the fifth city, every penguin was a national celebrity.”
troupern.Ch.17
A performer who carries on professionally, no matter what
“Greta was a real trouper and never missed a show.”
upstagev.Ch.17
To steal attention from another performer
“The penguins would upstage any singer by simply waddling past.”
pantv.Ch.17
To breathe quickly with the mouth open, from heat or effort
“In warm theaters the birds began to pant.”
insulationn.Ch.17
Material that keeps heat in or out
“A penguin’s feathers and fat are natural insulation.”
headlinen.Ch.16
The large title of a newspaper story
“The birds made the front-page headline in every city.”
schedulen.Ch.16
A plan of times for trains, shows, and events
“The tour schedule allowed no missed trains.”
ⓘ The vocabulary words in this list are selected to help you understand and complete this workbook. Some may not appear verbatim in the original novel.
1Noisy confusion and excitement is a ___.Ch.16
2A ‘corridor’ is a long hallway in a building.Ch.16
3A bed on a train or ship is a ___.Ch.16
4To ‘upstage’ someone is to politely give them all the attention.Ch.17
5Fill in each blank with the correct word.Ch.16–17
Word choices:celebritypantheadlineschedule- some words will not be used
In warm theaters the birds would like little dogs.
The tour ruled the family’s every hour.
6A performer who carries on professionally no matter what is a ___.Ch.17
7‘Insulation’ keeps heat in or out.Ch.17
8A famous person — or bird — is a ___.Ch.17
9Fill in the blanks with the correct words.Ch.16–17
Word choices:commotionupstagecorridortrouper- some words will not be used
The birds raced down the hotel before breakfast.
No singer was safe — the penguins would anyone.
10The large title of a newspaper story is its ___.Ch.16
Part 2
Comprehension
Show you understood what happens in Chapters 16–17.
🧠Knowledge Bank · Telling the Big Parts Briefly
Reading Skill · SummarizingTo summarize is to retell a story’s most important parts in just a few sentences, leaving out the tiny details. It is a powerful skill, because a good summary proves you understand what truly matters. Part 7 makes summarizing useful, since the penguins’ tour races through city after city in a busy string of events. Rather than remembering every single stop, you can capture the heart of it: the penguins travel widely, perform to delighted crowds, and grow more famous with every show. Because you keep the big ideas and drop the small ones, the whole tour fits neatly in your mind. When a story moves fast, pause to sum it up in your own words. That short retelling is often the surest sign you have truly understood.
1How do the Poppers and penguins travel between circuit cities?Ch.16
2What do the penguins do in the grand hotels?Ch.16
3The act plays to nearly empty theaters in most cities.Ch.17
4What happens when the penguins wander into other performers’ acts?Ch.17
5Write the numbers 1–5 in the boxes to show the correct order of events in Chapters 16–17. Number 1 = what happens first.Ch.16–17
Packed houses cheer the act in city after city.
Heat in the warm theaters starts to trouble the birds.
The family and twelve penguins board the train for the first tour city.
Hotel lobbies and elevators meet their first penguins.
The penguins begin upstaging other performers.
6Warm theaters are perfectly comfortable for the Antarctic performers.Ch.17
7How does the family battle the heat for their birds?Ch.17
8What follows the act from city to city ahead of the train?Ch.16
9The tour finally brings steady money into the Popper family.Ch.16
10What does Mr. Popper begin to understand as the heat wears on his birds?Ch.17
Part 3
Literary Elements
Understanding HOW and WHY Richard & Florence Atwater tells the story across Chapters 16–17.
🧠Knowledge Bank · A Story Told in Episodes
Literary Craft · Episodic StructureSome stories are built as a single long adventure, but others move through a series of separate little adventures, one after another. This is called episodic structure, and each stop is an episode. Part 7 uses it beautifully: the penguins visit theater after theater, and every new city brings its own small scene, complete with its own surprises and laughs. Because each episode stands nearly on its own, the tour feels lively and full of variety, a bit like beads strung on a single thread. Yet a thread does run through them — the penguins’ rising fame ties every stop together. As you read, notice how the author balances fresh, stand-alone fun with a growing story line that keeps carrying the whole tour toward its coming trouble.
Episodic structure
A story told in self-contained episodes — each city is its own little comedy, strung on the tour like beads.
Escalating fame
Each episode tops the last — from local headline to national celebrity, the snowball rolls city to city.
The shadow under triumph
One dark thread through bright chapters — the heat, a problem no applause can solve, quietly steering the ending.
1The tour chapters are structured as ___.Ch.16–17
2Fill in the blank with the correct literary term.Ch.16
Word choices:episodiccircularrhymingformal- some words will not be used
A story told in self-contained scenes has an structure.
3The heat thread running under the funny tour episodes works as ___.Ch.17
4An episodic structure means every scene depends completely on the one before it.Ch.16
5The penguins upstaging singers and acrobats extends the book’s oldest joke: ___.Ch.17
6Fame’s snowball — each city bigger than the last — gives the tour chapters their ___.Ch.16–17
7The Atwaters keep the heat problem loud and center-stage in every scene.Ch.17
8Fill in the blank with the correct literary term.Ch.17
Word choices:shadowspotlightcurtainecho- some words will not be used
A dark thread beneath bright chapters is the under the triumph.
9Showing the penguins panting RIGHT AFTER their greatest triumphs creates ___.Ch.17
10By Chapter 17’s end, the story quietly asks its final question. It is: ___.Ch.17
Part 4
Think Deeper
Four deeper challenges — no single-word recall. Read, weigh the evidence, and reason it out.
🧠Knowledge Bank · What Fame Costs
Social-Emotional · Fame & BalanceSuccess is sweet, but Part 7 quietly shows that it carries a price. The penguins are famous now, yet fame means endless travel, tiring shows, stuffy halls, and the constant danger of the heat. Because so much attention pulls at the family, the calm, happy home they once had feels far away. This is a gentle truth worth remembering: getting what you wished for often brings new burdens along with the joy. Notice how the Poppers try to stay kind and level-headed even as excitement swirls around them. Real wisdom is enjoying good fortune without letting it turn your head or run your life. The story invites us to celebrate the penguins’ triumph while keeping our feet, like theirs, planted in steady, humble balance.
Think back over the chapters. A night train rocks through the dark with twelve penguins asleep in its berths. A hotel manager watches his marble lobby fill with waddling celebrities. In city after city, curtains rise, houses roar, and singers learn to finish quickly before the penguins wander on. And backstage, always, a family hauls buckets of ice for performers who were built for a blizzard and are learning to live under stage lights.
Original passage written for Garden Heights — not a quotation from the novel.
1Claim: “The tour’s success comes with a real cost to the penguins themselves.” — choose the two details that best prove it.Claim & Evidence
2What the tour gives, or What the tour takes? Tap each detail to send it left or right.Sort into two
◄ What the tour givesWhat the tour takes ►
3Match each cause to its result. For each cause, pick its result.Cause & Effect
Twelve penguins check into a grand hotel→
Wire stories race ahead of the tour train→
Curious penguins wander into other acts→
Heated theaters press on Antarctic insulation→
4Fill both blanks to complete the reasoning.Build the Argument
The heat matters more than any other problem on the tour because , which shows that .
Part 5
Standardized Test
Reading passage · How Penguins Beat the Heat · SAT & TOEFL-style practice
🎯 You already have the skills from the sections above — this is just a fun way to meet real SAT & TOEFL-style questions. Read the passage (the highlighted words are tested below), then answer the questions below. Tap an answer to select it, then tap it again to confirm — you can change your choice until you confirm.
A penguin wears the warmest suit in nature — and cannot take it off. Dense, waterproof feathers over a thick layer of fat make superb insulation against Antarctic blizzards, but the same suit becomes a burden anywhere warm. An overheated penguin cannot sweat as humans do. Instead, it pants with its beak open, letting warm, moist breath carry heat away, and holds its flippers out from its body, turning them into little radiators where warm blood runs close to the surface and cools. Some species can flush extra blood to bare patches of skin on the face and feet for the same purpose. Behavior helps too: hot penguins seek shade, lie on cool ground, and above all head for water, since a cold swim sheds heat faster than anything on land. This is why zoos in warm cities build chilled penguin houses with refrigerated pools, and why keepers watch summer temperatures with such vigilance. A penguin can visit the warm world and even perform in it — but its body never stops voting, quietly and constantly, for ice.
Original passage written for Garden Heights — not a quotation from the novel.
1What is the main idea of the passage?SAT · Central Ideas
2Why can’t a penguin simply cool off the way humans do?TOEFL · Factual Information
3In the passage, the flippers act as radiators, meaning they ___.SAT · Words in Context
4According to the passage, what sheds a penguin’s heat faster than anything on land?SAT · Detail
5Some penguin species flush extra blood to bare skin patches on the ___.TOEFL · Factual Information
6In the passage, insulation refers to ___.TOEFL · Vocabulary
7Why do zoos in warm cities refrigerate their penguin pools?SAT · Inference
8In the passage, keepers watch summer temperatures with vigilance, meaning ___.SAT · Words in Context
9The phrase ‘its body never stops voting for ice’ means ___.TOEFL · Sentence Simplification
10Which tour detail from the novel does this passage explain best?SAT · Text Connections
Part 6 · Optional
Creative Writing
A bonus challenge to practice your English. Take your time and have fun with it.
About This Section
This writing task is optional and is not part of your auto-graded score. The feedback below checks only the basics — length, spelling, and grammar — not whether your ideas are right or wrong. It is meant for classroom discussion and creative practice, so feel free to use your imagination!
Writing Task — Part 7 “Postcard from the Tour”
Bill or Janie Popper is writing a postcard home to a school friend from the fifth city of the tour. Describe ONE hotel disaster, ONE moment on stage, and ONE quiet worry about the penguins and the heat. End with what you miss about Stillwater. Write 6–10 sentences in a child’s cheerful voice.
You can start with: “Dear Tom, you will not believe what the penguins did to this hotel...”
0 / 40 words minimum
đź—Ł Teach It · Just for Fun (optional)
No right or wrong — tell someone nearby what happened in this part. Can’t find anyone? Tell yourself out loud. The moment you teach it, you truly understand it.
Part 7 Complete!
You finished Chapters 16–17 of Mr. Popper’s Penguins.
Here are your auto-graded results:
-
points out of 100
Your Writing
Your writing was checked automatically for length, spelling, grammar, and whether you included the key parts of the scene. Scroll back to Part 5 anytime to read your feedback and improve your work.
Independent study guide by Garden Heights. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Richard & Florence Atwater. Contains original analysis only; no text from the novel is reproduced. Reference text: This workbook follows Richard & Florence Atwater’s classic text (the standard Puffin edition sold worldwide). Revised 2023 UK editions change some wording and may not match the vocabulary studied here.
