Nothing Like a Puffin

Several essential facts about puffins emerge from this engaging, cheerful and astonishingly simple taxonomic exercise, filled with humor and a dynamic conversational style both visual and textual...What makes two things alike and what makes them different-what, indeed, confers individuality and the quality of being uniquely amazing-is exuberantly celebrated in a puffin-affectionate package.

Much like her eponymous puffin, Soltis shows her mischievous side in her debut picture book, a playful exploration of unexpected comparisons with twists that will have readers reconsidering the ways in which disparate things can be surprisingly similar. "What a marvelous creature, one of a kind and amazing," she writes of the puffin. After discussing how a ladder and a house are nothing like a puffin, the narrator runs into a bit of trouble. "A newspaper, to be sure, is nothing like a puffin.... A newspaper has pages. It's black and white. But wait--a puffin is black and white, too! What are the chances?" This epiphany leads to others (a puffin can swim like a goldfish and dig like a shovel) as Kolar's (Big Kicks) bold, cheerful cartoons show the bird causing lighthearted havoc, tearing the homeowner's newspaper and biting a snake on the tail. What's more, his restrained palette reinforces the similarities Soltis so effectively uncovers, e.g., the house's awning is striped with the same orange, yellow, and blue of the puffin's beak. Delightful, thought-provoking fun. Ages 4-6. (Sept.)

K-Gr 2--This title offers the ultimate comparison study for younger readers. Is a puffin like a ladder? A house? A newspaper? A pair of jeans? A goldfish? A shovel? A snake? A helicopter? Are they a little alike, or a lot? Is a puffin like a penguin--or is it so special that it's one of a kind? In a conversational stream of questions, youngsters are also asked to think a bit deeper before the page turns. How are birds like snakes? (They both hatch from eggs.) How is a newspaper like a puffin? (Both are black and white.) Large spreads highlight digitally created images with bold colors and patterns. A bit of humor, visual hints, opportunities for inference, and motion-inspired figures pull readers from page to page. "What is a puffin?" A final list summarizes the creature's attributes, but perhaps readers will agree--there's nothing quite like a puffin.--Mary Elam, Learning Media Services, Plano ISD, TX