This sweet story is about a young puffin called Peter who loses his best friend Paul during a storm. On his quest to be reunited with his friend, Peter enlists the help of a friendly blue whale. The whale attempts to follow Peter’s descriptions of his friend, but ends up leading him to other birds that match Peter’s partial descriptions. There’s a happy ending and the friends are ultimately reunited.

Reception classes adore this story about friendship, helping others and perseverance. We love the beautifully illustrated seascapes and the vibrant, textured illustrations of the various birds. There’s a mild ‘find the match’ puzzle element to the plot, reminiscent of Julia Donaldson’s Monkey Puzzle, and young children love the tease of knowing more than the characters and wanting to jump into the story and tell the whale what he hasn’t realised. At its heart, though, this is a really gentle story that plays on the feeling of belonging together  – a feeling that best friends will find familiar.