Pufflings Fly Free!
A Rescue Tale from Iceland
by Colleen Paeff
illustrated by Linda Ólafsdóttir
Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2026.
Review written September 18, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review
Pufflings Fly Free! is a sweet picture book based on real events that happen every year in the Westman Islands of Iceland.
The book starts with a girl named Freya, the youngest in her family, going out late on a full-moon night on Puffling Patrol.
More than a million puffins come to the Westman Islands every year to breed. The parents leave their chicks – their pufflings – when they’re barely able to fly. Most of the pufflings make it to the ocean, where they live on the water, feast on fish, and their wings grow strong. But some unlucky babies accidentally end up on the land of the islands. There, the pufflings are vulnerable to cars, predators, and even starvation.
So – families like Freya’s go on Puffling Patrol. They capture frightened pufflings and place them safely in grass-lined boxes for the night.
Tomorrow they will check its health with a local scientist, then release the bird over the ocean. There, it will learn to fly and dive for fish, like all adult puffins. But tonight, it will stay at Freya’s house, safe from cars and cats and other kinds of danger.
Freya is good at spotting pufflings. But when it comes to catching them, she gets flustered when they flap and nip and can’t seem to hold onto them. Everyone else seems better at it than she is.
But when they’re almost done for the night, a little bird dives into the mouth of an excavator claw – an opening where only Freya can follow. This time, she speaks calming words to the puffling and to herself, and she gathers the baby up without fumbling.
The next day after the scientist checks and bands the birds, Freya gets to set her rescued puffling free to fly out over the water and grow strong.
Six pages of back matter give us more information about puffins and the Puffling Patrol. This is a lovely story packed with real-life facts that will make you want to visit Iceland.
colleenpaeff.com
lindaolafsdottir.com
Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Picture_Books/pufflings_fly_free.html
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