It’s hard to beat puffins for cute­ness. Cute + infor­ma­tive = a win­ning combination.

Once again, Ted and Betsy Lewin’s trav­els bring a fas­ci­nat­ing glimpse into a way of life I never knew existed. In Puffling Patrol, the Lewins chron­i­cle eight-year-old twins, Dani and Erna, as they res­cue pufflings on the Ice­landic island of Heimay. While only 4300 peo­ple live on Heimay, their lights are enough to con­fuse many of the young puffins mak­ing their way to sea each August. Chil­dren who join the Puffling Patrol stay up late to res­cue puffins who land in the town from the dan­gers of dogs, cats, and vehi­cles (in the best of times, puffins’ stout bod­ies make take­off chal­leng­ing, the flat streets and weak young wings make take­off in town impos­si­ble). What an awe­some expe­ri­ence for the chil­dren! The illus­tra­tions cap­ture both the joy and seri­ous­ness with which they approach their task. See the quar­ter­back throw when the puffins are released and an enthu­si­as­tic res­cue on the National Geo­graphic Video (3 min­utes).

The back mat­ter on Atlantic puffins enhances the already fas­ci­nat­ing book.  Unfor­tu­nately, it was nec­es­sary to include infor­ma­tion on the threats the puffins face. A short­age of sand eels is threat­en­ing the puf­fin pop­u­la­tion on Heimay mean that while 1600 pufflings were res­cued in 2007, only ten were in 2010.

Puffling Patrol would pair well with The One and Only Ivan, a book that has been inspir­ing many chil­dren to want to do some­thing for ani­mals in need.

Hop on over to Non­fic­tion Mon­day host, Per­o­gies & Gyoza, for more non­fic­tion reviews.

This book will also count towards my Non­fic­tion Pic­ture Book chal­lenge.