Thursday 27th February

Author: Margaret Wild

Illustrator: Julie Vivas

Publisher: Omnibus books

Year of publications: 2008

Hard cover

Readership.

Young readers of all ages

Characters: A puffin chick and its parents

Overview

The story of a puffin chick from hatching to being ready to leave the burrow for the great wide world. Margaret Wild does it again to bring us yet another of her brilliantly crafted stories and when paired with Julie Vivas’ art it is pure magic.

 

illustrations : Pastel and water colour pencil on textured paper. Julie Vivas is a most wonderful artist and she once again brings life to the characters she portrays in her art.  In this book she brings the puffins to life. They are beautiful and so delightful. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The little puffin must grow and gain strength before he can leave the nest and brave the big wide world.  The parents keep him safe yet encourage him to grow in strength and courage until he is ready.

The dialogue between the three puffins allows the reader into the burrow and experience the love in the words of the characters. The little natural conflicts of a young one pushing the boundaries and the parents holding them firm until they are ready to be stretched are beautifully portrayed.

One evening Puffling asked Big stripy Beak and Long black Feather "when can I leave the burrow?"

"When you are tall enough and strong enough and brave enough you'll leave the burrow all by yourself." said Big stripy Feather.

Puffling continues to ask and continues to grow with his loving protective parents helping him.   

Sheer delight and a marvelous way to learn a little about puffins. 

 

Now on to trees and the 52 week challenge and in the wee small hours of the night I could not sleep and managed to produce a water colour with some fine liner touches and a dab of 8B pencil.

It is called

Welcoming the newest Dryad.

Dryad's of course are female oak spirits since the origin of the word is to do with oaks but for the purpose of my art I have used the word to denote all tree spirits of this kind regardless of the tree.

 

February has almost run its course and I wrote my achievements for the month on the sliding doors. I have managed to come up with 26 ideas for Picture Book Month and may find another two before tomorrow. I participated in Petite ReviMo days, Mini WOW, the 52 week challenge and 12x12. I was also working slowly through the Picture Book Dummy challenge but it is too much on twitter and I have not yet embraced twitter. I have completed my YA novel, found a critique group, begun art for two other writers, started the study group for the teens, had surgery and been a parent. I also signed on to carpe verba to keep to a 500 word tally per month, submitted several pieces of flash ficiton online, took up a stikk commitment and joined an anthology club. I started learning Spanish and now know how to ask for a cup of tea with milk and think I can budget for two conferences later in the year. I put up shade cloth and have been exercising daily. It has been a very full and very wonderful month and I feel fantastic to be writing and creating art every day.

I am going to write myself a vision statement, mission statement and write out strategic goals and put them up on my wall to see every day. I have also filled out my charts for March ready for chapter book challenge and a number of other things coming up.