Eric Bennett of Northampton will share his lifelong love of penguins next Saturday morning at the Greenfield Public Library.

Bennett has an online penguin gift shop (penguingiftshop.com) and has just produced the fourth installment in a children’s series about Noodles, an Emperor Penguin, and his best friend, a colorful fish named Albie.

The book, “Noodles & Albie on Thin Ice” (Nightingale Books), opens as Noodles is competing in the Midnight Sun Ice-Ball Tournament, a competition that takes advantage of the long days in Antarctica’s summer to play a “midnight sun” baseball game.

The game is fun … but exhausting. The fact that the temperature is above normal adds to the players’ fatigue. Noodles takes a break and retires to his igloo for a bit of sleep.

Unfortunately, as he snoozes, the warm temperatures cause the ice surrounding his igloo to break off from the surrounding landscape and start to drift north from the South Pole.

Luckily, Albie the fish is present to observe all this and to advise Noodles as the sheet of ice sails farther and farther toward warmer climes and begins to melt.

Just as it looks as though Noodles will be stranded in the middle of the ocean, the two spot land. They arrive at Fairy Island in Australia. The tiny penguins there, called Little Blue Penguins or Fairy Penguins, are amazed at Noodles’s size, never having seen an Emperor Penguin before.

Fortunately, Noodles and Albie have arrived just in time to save the little penguins’ eggs from local foxes, who steal penguin eggs every night.

The friends are happy to help … but find themselves in a bit of a pickle. The temperature on Fairy Island is too darn warm for Noodles’s health … and in any case he is homesick. Fortunately (the book is, after all, written for children), the two find a way to get home.

Unfortunately, they are unable to solve the overall issue of global warming.

Even so, “Noodles & Albie on Thin Ice” is a colorful, delightful book that delves into a serious issue but manages to give its readers hope.

If only the rest of us can drum up the kind of energy and ingenuity Noodles and Albie demonstrate, we may find a way to save our planet.

Eric Bennett will read his new book and talk all things penguin on Saturday, March 8, at 10:30 a.m. as part of Children’s Story Hour at the Greenfield Public Library. Signed copies of the book will be available for purchase. Those not able to attend may purchase the book online at the usual bookstores.

Tinky Weisblat is an award-winning author and singer known as the Diva of Deliciousness. Visit her website, TinkyCooks.com.