Today is my stop on the Blog Tour for
Call The Puffins!
Written by Cath Howe
Illustrated by Ella Okstad and
Published by Welbeck Kids

The children and I are super excited to read and review
Call The Puffins!
Until then we have a fantastic guest post
From Cath How about the stories
And the big themes within them

My stories in Call The Puffins! feature a team of young puffins being trained in rescues.
They live on the Island of Egg and learn to work together and earn badges, rather like Scouts and
Brownies. I enjoyed thinking about what sorts of new skills they would learn and planning their
daring rescues.

On the Island there is an ancient lighthouse, rabbit warrens they use as burrows, and an arena
where training takes place. There is also a giant egg; the Midnight Egg. This is their meeting place.
But it is much more than that.

I suppose the Midnight Egg and the legends and stories I’ve created come from somewhere deep in
my imagination. I love the idea of a dark egg and no one knowing how it got there. It’s the puffin
Stonehenge!

The puffins make a promise. I like promises and pledges. They connect people together and give
them a purpose.

Here is the one the puffins sing each day:
I promise to be unflappable
To bravely cross the sea and sky
To rescue eggs and also birds
It may not work, but I’ll always try

The puffins want to be unflappable. This has many meanings for me. I wondered how children
would respond to this idea and asked a group of them what it means to be unflappable. Here’s what
they said: It means you are brave, not having meltdowns, being organised, having ideas and trying
things, not worrying too much, coping when life gets tricky, finding your inner strength.

We all wantchildren to develop resilience when times are tough. My puffins need to work on being resilient too.
I enjoyed setting the promise to music. I’ve always liked making up songs and I hope they carry the
spirit of the puffins. You can hear the promise sung by a group of year six pupils who I teach, in the
trailer for the book. I think they sound fantastic.

My books for children have at their heart a wish to promote empathy. This is such an important life
skill that children’s books can develop, allowing children to discover new worlds and characters and
the feelings that go with them and see how characters get along when they face a challenge.

I’d love to have these plucky puffins by my side when life is harsh. They try hard to make life better
and bring joy as they celebrate their life together.

We think this new series sounds brilliant!

We cannot wait to meet The Puffins!

To find out more about the new book and series

Do follow along with the rest of the tour