Puffin the Architect

Author(s): Kimberly Andrews

NZ Picture Books | Better Start Literacy | Year 2 Books

Puffin is an architect who always exceeds her clients' expectations. That is, until she takes on the toughest clients ever - her own pufflings!


Puffin takes her tricky new clients on an inspirational tour of her builds. Together they visit all kinds of cleverly designed spaces -Otter's floating home, Pig's toolshed on wheels, Painter Goose's light-filled studio and Platypus's cosy underground bakehouse. The pufflings are unimpressed. Her clients really are a challenge! Will Puffin come up with a puffling-perfect home design?


This gorgeous story, with endearing animal characters, intriguing house designs, ingenious mechanisms and storage solutions to pore over on every page, will spark a brand new generation of architects, engineers and interior designers!

Lucy's Review:


Puffin has designed a bakery for Platypus, a houseboat for Otter, an art studio for Goose and a treehouse for Moose...but will she ever come up with a design to please her newest clients, two little pufflings?


Kimberly Andrew's new picture book is just delightful with illustrations reminiscent of Jill Barklem's Brambly Hedge.  These are no old fashioned homes though; they have all the modern design features and hidden spaces that make tiny homes work.  It's no wonder George Clarke (George Clarke's Amazing Spaces) loves it! You'll spend hours poring over the details and possibly more hours designing your own imaginary homes - something which I loved doing as a kid and should really make some more time for now.


Really inspiring stuff from the illustrator of Joy Cowley's Song of the RiverTuna and Hiriwa and Explore Aotearoa! (shortlisted for the 2018 NZ Children's Book Awards).  Highly recommended for 3-7 year olds and would make a great resource for teachers.


Product Information

Winner of the Russell Clark Illustration Award in the 2019 NZ Book Awards for Children & Young Adults

Kimberly Andrews is a trained biologist and geologist who grew up in the Canadian Rockies, and she has also lived and worked in New Zealand, Borneo and the UK. In London, she worked for The House of Illustration, whose main ambassador is Quentin Blake. She also worked at the Natural History Museum, both in the live Butterfly House and also behind the scenes, assisting the curation of mammal specimens in the dry stores.Kimberly lives in a small house near Wellington, where she illustrates and writes, and runs her business Tumbleweed Tees, which features New Zealand birds and wildlife. Her first picture book, Tuna and Hiriwa by Ripeka Takotowai Goddard (Huia, 2016), was a 2017 Storylines Notable Book. Puffin the Architect is the first picture book which she has both written and illustrated.

General Fields

  • : 9780143772187
  • : Penguin NZ
  • : Penguin NZ
  • : 0.202
  • : June 2018
  • : .7 Centimeters X 25.4 Centimeters X 30.3 Centimeters
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Kimberly Andrews
  • : Paperback
  • : 823.3