A tale of two penguins: And Tango Makes Three enters Living Paintings library

We’re delighted to share the latest book to enter the Living Paintings library… And Tango Makes Three, a story all about diverse families!

What’s the book about?

And Tango Makes Three is based on a true story about two male penguins, Roy and Silo, at the penguin house in New York’s Central Park Zoo. They start nesting with stones and it’s clear they’d love a baby penguin to care for. So, with the help of a kindly zookeeper, Roy and Silo get the chance to welcome a baby penguin of their very own.

Why is this book important?

We love this book because it’s a brilliant introduction into the concept of diverse families, told through the tale of two very special penguins that children will love.  Our accessible adaptation includes braille and tactile pages and an audio description that describes all the illustrations in the book helping blind children to really understand the story.

And Tango Makes Three is the next book in our Celebrating Our Differences collection, along with familiar favourites such as Elmer and contemporary classics like Malala’s Magic Pencil!

What goes inside our accessible adaptation?

The remarkable story of Roy and Silo, and of course, little baby Tango, is brought to life through raised tactile images and clear braille pages, perfect for little fingers to feel! Our raised images begin life as line drawings of key illustrations taken from the book. Then, they’re then turned into wood carvings by our master carvers, before being pressed into tactile pages. Finally, each tactile picture is hand-painted by our volunteer painters and assembled by our brilliant production volunteers.

Below are the gorgeous tactile pages contained in this accessible book, giving blind children an extra level of information to better understand the story.

For this title, we were excited to have the support of actor Jack Holden to record the detailed audio description.

As a passionate supporter of the LGBTQIA+ community, Jack’s voice guides readers through all the illustrations and over the raised images, helping them access the illustrations and story through touch and sound.

Thank you Jack, for your support!

How to order

And Tango Makes Three is available now, for children who are blind or visually impaired to order from our free postal library. Borrow your copy today!

• Borrow your copy today!