Puffling Patrol

March 15, 2012
The intrepid husband-and-wife team's latest travels take them to Iceland to report on the plight of puffins. With their usual skilled attention to detail and empathy for animal life, the Lewins take readers to the island of Heimaey off the southern coast of Iceland. There, they recount the annual rescue of baby puffins by children of the Puffling Patrol. The young birds are often confused by street lights in the small town and must be rescued and returned to the shore. Focusing on brother-and-sister twins in one Icelandic family, the Lewins provide fascinating information on the adorable birds and the special attention they receive. Whether sheltered in a box or held carefully in the children's hands, the pufflings are irresistible. The lush watercolor paintings and detailed pen-and-ink sketches draw readers into this remote land and provide many charming close-up views of the colorful seabirds. Like animal life all over, puffins are threatened by global warming, and fewer and fewer numbers are recorded each year, making the twins' efforts feel all the more urgent. The Lewins have previously visited and written about elephants in Botswana and India, gorillas in Uganda and horses in Mongolia; this latest travelogue is as informative and attractive. Bird and animal lovers will enjoy this journey to a remote but welcoming locale. (additional information, resources, glossary and pronunciation guide) (Informational picture book. 6-10)

COPYRIGHT(2012) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

July 1, 2012

Gr 2-5-The Lewins are on the road again, this time traveling to the isolated island of Heimaey, just off the coast of Iceland, that is home to about 4300 people and one of the largest puffin populations in the world. They are here to chronicle the annual ritual of the rescue of young puffins that become disoriented during their maiden flight to sea and instead land in town, unable to escape without assistance. The first third of the book offers good background information, but reads like an adult travelogue: "From our airplane window we see the mist-shrouded Westman Islands...." The child-centered drama kicks in when the text turns its focus on eight-year-old twins Dani and Erna, part of the puffling patrol that rescues the young birds and then releases them. Ted Lewin is a master at depicting light and shadow, and his majestic watercolor paintings effectively display the windswept vistas in cool blues and greens and indoor and nighttime scenes in warmer tones. His concluding sequence of spreads of the pufflings' successful release is breathtaking. These larger vistas work harmoniously with Betsy Lewin's more informal, loosely composed pen-and-ink field sketches that fluidly capture the antics of the comical seabirds. Handsomely designed, this inherently engaging story sends an important message about the difference the island children make in helping save just one precious puffling. It covers the same rescue introduced in Bruce McMillan's appealing Nights of the Pufflings (Houghton, 1995), with more background information on the island, its volcanic activity, and the current plight of the pufflings (there has been a decrease in sand eels, their main source of food). A comprehensive glossary and pronunciation guide to the Icelandic words round out a handsome package.-Caroline Ward, The Ferguson Library, Stamford, CT

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2012
Grades 2-4 The Lewins take readers on a trip to Iceland's Westman Islands, where Atlantic puffins return each spring to breed and raise their young, which are called pufflings. In August, when the adult puffins fly away for the winter, their fledglings must fend for themselves. Each year some fly into town rather than out to sea, but the children and adult volunteers of the Puffling Patrol rescue many of the vulnerable birds. After accompanying a team of researchers studying the puffins' burrows in cliffs above the sea, the Lewins follow two children, twins Erna and Dani, as they find a wayward puffling, take it home for the night, visit the natural history museum's rescue station the next day, and help with the release of many pufflings. Wonderfully vibrant and expressive, the book's illustrations include large watercolor paintings and smaller ink drawings with watercolor washes. Pair this large-format picture book with Bruce McMillan's Nights of the Pufflings (1995).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)