Book Review

Nights of the Pufflings deserves four out of five stars. Bruce McMillan did a good job taking facts about puffins and mixing them into a true story. I wish, however, that he had included a little more of his information about puffins in the story, instead of putting most of it in an Afterword.

Nights of the Pufflings is about a girl named Halla (Hot-la) who lives on a small island off the coast of Iceland called Heimaey (HAY-mah-ay). She and her friends search for stranded pufflings on late nights in August. On their first night out of their dens, the pufflings race to the ocean, but some fly towards the town thinking that the lights of the city are moonbeams on the water. Will the children get to the stranded pufflings in time to save them from urban dangers such as cats, dogs, and cars?

The photographs that Bruce McMillan took are wonderful! They are colorful, clear, and illustrate exactly what he is talking about. Reading this book made me want to visit Heimaey and search for pufflings with Halla and her friends! If you want to learn lots about puffins, I would not recommend this book to you, but if you want to read a real and entertaining story with cute and colorful photo illustrations, this is the book for you!

~ Cece Carey-Snow, Longfellow & Home school
"Read, Write & Win!" 2004 First Place / Fourth Grade