Puffin and Penguin

Submitted by CDCastro on
Author
Helaine Becker
Illustrated by
Kevin Sylvester
Toronto, ON: Kids Can Press, 2024
80 pp., hardcover, $18.99
ISBN
978-1-5253-0654-9
Grades
Grades 1-4
Ages
Ages 6-9
Review by
Sheryl Lee
Excerpt

Puffin’s plan:

OPERATION MEET PUFFIN

1. TELL EVERYONE ABOUT PUFFINS

2. SHOW WHAT MAKES ME SUPER

3. JOIN THE DRAMA club

Puffin quickly got to work at school that day:

Writing on the whiteboard:

WHAT IS A PUFFIN?

-CAN FLY

-BEAK LIGHTS UP

-LIVES UP NORTH

Puffin: At my old school, they called me Super P! Faster than a speeding bullet!”

Penguin gets a "BONK! as Super P flies by him.

Schoolmates (Downy Woodpecker & Canada Goose): Super Pee? Ewww.

Puffin: Last year, I directed the school play. “Frozentoes: The Musical”.

Penguin has a scowl on his face.

Schoolmates (Loon & Gull): What a bragger!

Penguin feels sad about how other birds are not accepting Puffin.

Puffin and Penguin is a graphic novel about Puffin’s moving from Iceland to Brookloon because his mother has to relocate for work. As a result, Puffin attends a new school, United Avian Nations School, and faces the challenges of being the new bird from the North.

Puffin and Penguin is a heartwarming story about how a puffin tries to fit into a new school and make new friends. There are humorous avian related puns throughout the graphic novel. That there are no more than three sentences in the textboxes and speech bubbles makes this graphic novel suitable for emerging and reluctant readers.

The illustrations were created by Kevin Sylvester. The characters are depicted as cartoon versions of different species of birds. The facial expressions on the characters’ faces really enhance the emotions of how they are feeling in each panel and while they are speaking. Because the pictures are drawn clearly, largely and coloured vibrantly, it is easy to identify which character is speaking.

Overall, Puffin and Penguin is a cute and endearing tale of making new friends in a new environment.

Highly Recommended
Reviewer

Sheryl Lee, a teacher-librarian in the New Westminster School District, is the mother of two elementary-aged children.