It's Too Dark, Puffling

This charming story takes us back to Skellig Michael and reunites us with the kind little puffling we first met in Where Are you, Puffling? Here she has a smaller puffling friend, who is scared of the dark. He won’t go into his cosy burrow, can’t be convinced by the small rabbit playing hide and seek in the big stone hut, and even the sweep of the lighthouse light, which makes the puffling’s heart warm, can’t cheer him up. Perhaps, we feel, as he looks out at the quiet and the calm of the night and the sea and the hide-and-seek huts, he might be feeling less frightened, but then his puffin parents arrive and, after describing everything he’s seen, he happily goes with them into his dark little burrow which suddenly seems ‘snuggly and cosy and lovely and warm’. Both pufflings are immensely appealing characters and the very young will love the thrill of their moonlit wander across the island, and the reassuring ending. The text is perfect to read aloud, full of repetition, and great for joining in, while the illustrations convey so much information about life on Skellig Michael, from the puffins arriving with fish in their beaks to the fulmars and guillemots on their cliff edge nests. A cross section at the very beginning contains facts about the island wildlife and reveals that puffin beaks glow under UV light. I had no idea!