Overview

Ted and Betsy Lewin travel to Iceland to learn about the ""Puffling Patrol,"" a group of children who rescue lost puffins and return them to sea. Every April, the Westman Islands off the coast of Iceland become home to hundreds of thousands of puffins, small black-and-white seabirds with colorful bills. They spend the summer on the rocky cliffs of the islands, caring for their newly hatched chicks. By the middle of August, it is time for the young puffins, called pufflings, to make their way to the sea. And that is when the children of The Puffling Patrol are called to action. Ted and Betsy Lewin have journeyed to the Westman Islands to experience The Puffling Patrol's endeavors firsthand. In the company of Erna, Dáni, and their father, they drive through town at night, carefully searching for confused little birds that have glided down onto the streets instead of out to sea. Will the children find the pufflings before the birds encounter danger? Will the pufflings ever make it to the sea to spend their lives with other puffins in the North Atlantic Ocean? The fascinating story of this unique annual rescue, combined with Ted Lewin's dramatic paintings and Betsy Lewin's lively field sketches, is sure to make Puffling Patrol a hit with animal lovers of all ages. Check out the other titles in this series: BALARAMA - ELEPHANT QUEST - GORILLA WALK - HORSE SONG - PUFFLING PATROL - TOP TO BOTTOM

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9781620141878

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Reviews

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 streetlights 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. -- Kirkus Reviews 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. -- School Library Journal 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. -- Booklist Best Children's Books of the Year: Outstanding Merit, Bank Street College of Education Choices, Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) Green Earth Book Award Honor Book, The Nature Generation Nonfiction Honor List, VOYA Outstanding Children's Book Award Finalist, Animal Behavior Society Reading Program, United Methodist Women

"""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. . . 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."" -- Kirkus Reviews ""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. . . Handsomely designed, this inherently engaging story sends an important message about the difference the island children make in helping save just one precious puffling."" -- School Library Journal Best Children's Books of the Year: Outstanding Merit, Bank Street College of Education Choices, Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) Green Earth Book Award Honor Book, The Nature Generation Nonfiction Honor List, VOYA Outstanding Children's Book Award Finalist, Animal Behavior Society Reading Program, United Methodist Women"

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Author Information

Ted Lewin and his wife, Betsy, have been traveling the world together for decades and have chronicled many of their wide-ranging adventures in books for young readers. In addition to Puffling Patrol, their most recent collaborations were Balarama: A Royal Elephant and Horse Song: The Naadam of Mongolia, both published by Lee & Low Books. Ted and Betsy have both won countless awards and honors for their books. Betsy was the recipient of a Caldecott Medal Honor in 2001 for Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type. When not teaching, visiting with young fans, or traveling, the Lewins are usually drawing and painting in their Brooklyn, New York, home studios. You can visit Betsy Lewin online at betsylewin.com

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