You don’t need to don a tux for this penguin party!
On Sept. 13, Bay Ridge bookstore BookMark Shoppe will host a big bash all about the dapper birds to celebrate the release of new children’s book “Noodles and Albie,” which centers on the unlikely friendship between an adolescent penguin and a fish.
The author, one-time Brooklynite Eric Bennett, has made a career of selling penguin paraphernalia, and said he has loved the aquatic avem so long, he can’t even remember when his passion first surfaced.
“I liked penguins since I was a kid,” said Bennett. “I’m not exactly sure why — I think it was a girl I liked. I pronounced to my parents that I liked penguins, and they were always at a loss what to get me for birthdays, so they always got me penguin stuff, and I guess It snowballed from there.”
Bennett, a Queens native, is the creator of Penguin Gift Shop at Penguin Place, an online store entirely devoted to penguin paraphernalia — including penguin iPhone cases, penguin lip balm, penguin wedding cake toppers, and penguin costumes. He ran the store from his Dumbo apartment for decades before rising rents and opportunities outside the city drew him to Massachusetts.
Now Bennett is headed back to Brooklyn for the BookMark launch, which promises all sorts of penguin-centric games and prizes. Attendees will get a free plush penguin with purchase of Bennett’s book, and there will also be free penguin pencils, stickers, and figurines up for grabs.
Bennett plans to read his story to youngsters, while the book’s illustrator Liz Bannish shows kids how to draw Noodles the penguin. There will also be a waddling contest to see who can do the best penguin impression. To top it off, Bennett will teach kids about his favorite bird with a penguin quiz that promises plenty of penguin prizes.
Bennett and Bannish self-published “Noodles and Albie” and are selling it online and in Massachusetts stores. They have been shopping it around to other New York City bookstores, but Bennett said merchants don’t want to deal with someone who lives outside the five boroughs. But the situation isn’t so black and white.
“I lived there 35 years, so I’m more of a local artist than someone who moved here from Idaho a year ago and lives in Bushwick,” he said.
“Noodles and Albie” at BookMark Shoppe [8415 Third Ave. between 84th and 85th streets in Bay Ridge, (718) 833–5115, www.bookmarkshoppe.com]. Sept. 13 at noon. Free.
