There Once Was a Puffin

by Florence Page Jaques, Laura McGee Kvasnosky (Illustrator)

Boldly colored pictures complement a rollicking story in rhyme about a little puffin whose fondness for fishes (he has them for supper and tea) sets the stage for an unusual friendship.

Genres: Picture Books, Storytime, Birds, Childrens, Food

24 pages, Hardcover

First published October 27, 2002

Reviews

[Becky Loader]

What a lovely book of poems! The copy I got from the library is from 1957 and has all the old penciled in cataloging from the library. Charming! It also has a few embellishments on the end papers from a small hand in 1957 or so. Nicely done rhymes and illustrations that reflect on nature and animals--and a few bugs.

Excuse me while I go look for a tammie norrie.....

[Michael Fitzgerald]

The simplistic illustrations are not a match for this charming poem. The idea of "playing" meaning table tennis and a see saw just doesn't make sense to me. And then there are the fish up on land playing croquet...just odd.

[Adrianne Rosal]

Our students love the rhyming!!

[zunggg]

A short but sharply written and funny poem for under-threes.

[Emily]

Enjoyably silly.

[Eva-Marie Nevarez]

I just found that we don't have this listed and we've had this forever and read it many times. This is a quick favorite of Julia's and has been for some time. Halpern's illustrations are definitely on point and totally work with the story.
This has very little wording so it's great for young toddlers and, like Julia, older toddlers too sometimes. The fact that Julia's beeing hearing this for years may help with that.
The Puffin in the story lives on an island and eats little fishes. The poor Puffin was lonely without any playmates so when he gets an offer from the fishes that he can have them "for playmates instead of for tea" he takes them up on it. From them on, the Puffin and the fishes eat pancakes "like you and like me".
Very cute!

[Danielle]

Adorable story about a puffin who eats fish until he realizes that the fish make better friends than meals. He switches to pancakes and he and the fish play badminton and live happily ever after.

[Susan]

Love it! Great to give as a gift to your vegetarian friends/families!

[Lindsay]

puffins, fish, friends, winter, pancakes

[Greta]

ahhhhhhgggg.

[Thia]

tune ain't gonna paint no more

[Leah]

Short and sweet rhyming book about a puffin and fishes who become friends. "D'aww!" inducing!

[Cheryl]

Well written rhyming book about a puffin eating fish and then playing with them.

[Brittany]

A little book about a puffin who is lonely so he makes friends with the fish instead of eating them.