Call the Puffins: Tiny and the Cave Ghost

Published on 21 June 2025 at 13:52

Call the Puffins! Tiny and the Cave Ghost

by Cath Howe

★★★★

Review

This sweet, lighthearted, and fun story is a celebration of friendship, teamwork, and bravery. The illustrations are simply marvellous — sprinkled throughout the pages, they complement the story beautifully and bring the characters to life.

This puffin-filled story follows a wonderful group of characters with fantastic names: Flotsam, Tiny, Drift, Forti, Hilly, Tenzi, and Muffin. Each adorable puffin brings something unique and charming to the adventure, and Howe’s playful use of dialogue and cheerful narration also makes this an excellent choice for reading aloud!

There’s also a rich variety of vocabulary to explore, making it a brilliant book for Year 1 and Year 2 teachers to share with their class.

I especially loved the puffin facts included at the end — I was amazed to learn that puffin beaks actually glow!

Thais is a must-have for Key Stage 1 classrooms or for any young readers who love puffins.

Dive Deeper

Key information

Author: Cath Howe

Illustrator: Ella Okstad

Release Date: 13th March 2025

Book type: Short chapter, 128 pages, paperback

Reader level: Developing reader (5+)

Series: 1 of 4

Storyline

Muffin, Tiny and the rest of the trainees are busy learning the skills they need to become rescue puffins. Life is always busy on the island of Egg, and the friends are delighted to be taking part in a special day of celebrations called Puffin Power, where they can practise all the things they've learned. But when a chick goes missing the young rescuers must put their training into practice, and before long they're deep in the cave network searching for the lost chick. It's dark and spooky - what if the legend of the ghost puffin that haunts these caves is true? Muffin, Tiny and the others need to gather their courage and work as a team to rescue the chick and lead everyone to safety!