AustLit

'Puffling begins as all puffins do, as an egg, hatching in summer. His doting parents, Long Black Feather and Big Stripy Beak, welcome him to the world and take turns to leave the burrow and go out hunting to bring him back food to eat. They warn him to stay inside the burrow at all times, as the ‘scary gulls’ are outside, watching for just such as morsel as a baby puffin. Puffling begins to grow, and to become impatient to grow up and go out into the big wild world outside, but his parents say that he should wait until his is ‘strong enough and tall enough and brave enough’, and then he will be able to make the trip all by himself along the cliff, jump off into the water and paddle away. Puffling is impatient, asking from time to time if he is ready for this moment. Only when he is strong enough (which he shows by paddling his feet and tall enough (by measuring himself against Big Stripy Beak) and brave enough (his parents listen to his heart) do his parents fly away and leave him. Puffling summons all his courage and makes the journey along the cliff, past the waiting gulls, which swoop! But they miss Puffling, and he leaps into the swell and finds friends in the ocean who will keep him company until it is time to come home.' (Publication summary)