Puffins!
The dramatic story of an Atlantic Puffin family raising their puffling on Maine’s Eastern Egg Rock Island during nesting season. Illustrated by Maris Wicks. Published by Roaring Brook Press (April 2026).
Reviews
“Gianferrari’s playful prose pairs beautifully with Wicks’ dramatic artwork, which alternates graphic novel–esque panels with full-page spreads for an immersive journey into an enticing avian world. A buoyant view of a natural cycle, loaded with visual and verbal appeal.”–Kirkus
“An appealing dive into the life and environment of puffins for classroom or individual reads.”–School Library Journal
“In a buoyant, species-focused picture book, Gianferrari (Rain and the Reading Horse) and Wicks (You and the Bowerbird) take readers on a comics-style trip to Maine’s Eastern Egg Rock Island. Matter-of-fact narration and digitally colored pencil-drawn panels portray a puffin colony that’s “as noisy as a city,” the air above dotted with onomatopoeic seabird cries. … Honest, hopeful, and brimming with visual drama, this fondly rendered puffin primer offers budding naturalists an instantly accessible introduction to wildlife resilience.”–Publisher’s Weekly
★”Gianferrari and Wicks (You and the Bowerbird, rev. 11/23) take readers to Eastern Egg Rock island, a puffin colony off the coast of Maine, to show the life cycle of these vulnerable seabirds told in a graphic format. Here we see a pair of puffin partners meet, create a burrow, and take turns incubating their egg. … Wicks’s cheerful palette, comprised of bright oranges, blues, and greens, creates the island’s cozy chaos, with numerous seabirds constantly squawking and flittering about. Some actions may seem anthropomorphic as the birds comically defend their ground or plop ungraciously on the rocks, but each is explained through smart back matter that, also in comics format, outlines the meticulous research validating these actions.”– Horn Book Magazine starred review in March/April 2026 issue.
“Experience the life cycle of a puffin, from the egg hatching into a chick to the chick growing into an adult and ultimately repeating the cycle. … The approachable and engaging account presents solid information without feeling like a textbook, making it especially appealing to readers who may shy away from dense nonfiction. With expressive illustrations and inventive graphic elements, this narrative-driven nonfiction brings the puffin life cycle vividly to life.”–Booklist