Puff: All About Air

by Emily Kate Moon

Breathe deep and prepare to sail like the wind, with the sweetest puff of air in all the atmosphere—from the creator of An Adventure through the Water Cycle

Look who just blew in! Meet Puff. He's air. And he's a gas! Puff has been here for billions of years, forming a blanket of protection around Earth to hold in heat and keep out cold. Puff is key to life—he's the air we breathe and the wind around us. And he's got talent! Have you ever incinerated a space rock? Traveled from the highest heights to the deepest depths of the sea? Or spun through a tornado? Puff has! He'll tell you all about it. With refreshing wit and breezy one-liners, Puff takes readers on an airy adventure through the atmosphere, earth, water, and you. Filled with irresistible artwork, funny asides, and a gentle current of kid-enticing facts, Puff is the breath of fresh air we’ve all needed.

"Fresh and breezy.” —Kirkus
"Cheerful [and] easy to understand." —Booklist

Genres: Picture Books, Nature, Science, Nonfiction, Stem, Childrens

32 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 19, 2024

About the author

Emily Kate Moon is an award-winning American author and illustrator. Her published works include PUFF: All About Air (Dial Books, 2024), DROP: An Adventure Through the Water Cycle (Dial Books, 2021), and JOONE (Dial Books, 2013).

Her current series, Science Pals, is a new, fun, and engaging way to teach science to kids, ages 4-100. Using simple words and a narrative style, these books explain the basics of water, air, and light. The third book of the series, RAY: How Light Works will be out June 10, 2025.

DROP is a Blue Ribbon Selection of Dolly Parton's Imaginary Library for 2022 and 2023. Over 750,000 copies of DROP have been shipped to families around the world through this program.

JOONE is the winner of the 2014 CLC Book Award for compassion, love, and courage.

For more information about the author, please visit: www.emilykatemoon.com

Reviews

[Deborah]

A charming and simple explanation of our atmosphere and the movement of air.

[Erin Buhr · Rating 4 out of 5]

PUFF: ALL ABOUT AIR follows an adorable puff of air around to demonstrate all the big and little ways air effects everything on our planet. The illustrations are adorable, the tone of the text is conversational and breezy, but don't be fooled: this book communicates so much about the atmosphere, the earth, water and more. There is also backmatter included on the inside covers that further deepens learning. This is a fun read aloud, but also has so much spin off potential for teachers.

[Kellee Moye · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reminiscent of Stacy McAnulty’s Our Universe series, Moon uses storytelling and humor to engage the reader in the book and sprinkles in information to teach all about air. The illustrations are perfect for the topic–light yet important to the story. This will be a great science cross-curricular read aloud.

[Roben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Puff is a great way to introduce the concepts of air, atmosphere, and wind to the youngest audience. There are lots of speech bubbles as Puff explains the science of air so it has a bit of a graphic novel feel to it.

[Ms. Yingling · Rating 3 out of 5]

Copy provided by Edelweiss Plus

In this companion to Drop: An Adventure through the Water Cycle (A Science Pals Book), we follow Drops' friend Puff on his adventures through the atmosphere. He and the other bits of wind protect that planet, and regulate the temperature. Puff keeps the air circulating, and can even carry his friend Drop around until he becomes rain. We see that Puff can go into water and aerate it, and can go into the soil as well to provide oxygen for plants and animals living there. There is good information about how humans need oxygen and plants need nitrogen; I wish all elementary school students would read this, because it would make 6th grade easier for them all if they knew this basic information!

This is a rather cute way to explain the convection cycle and how air circulates; Puff looks a bit like a Sta-Puff marshmallow man without the body. The curl on top of his head, as well as the facial expressions, has a kitten-like quality that will enthrall young readers. There's a good sense of movement, given all of the air blowing about, and even the words on the page waft about a good bit.

Reading picture books about science is an excellent way to not only entertain preschool children, but to prepare them for the information they will delve into once they go to school. It's fun to do basic science experiments, and this would be great to read in March before flying some kites! Delight your budding scientist with this cute and engaging look at the way wind works, and use it to do research into the topic along with Rockwell's Clouds, Maclear and Pak's The Fog, Ganeri's I Wonder Why the Wind Blows: And Other Questions About Our Planet, and Karg and Diao's I Am the Wind.

[Nicole Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an ARC of this book for my honest opinion.

From the author of Drop comes Puff, a new accessible book about the air (although Drop does make an appearance!). There have been many books about the water cycle but this is the first kids book I have seen about the convection cycle and this one is a good one. As usual, I love the illustrations as they make the information much for accessible to younger kids and yet there are sections with more explanatory text for more advanced or older kids or even adults. I also really enjoy the hint of mindfulness throughout in importance of breathing and the yoga poses some of the kids have. A really great science book for any home or school library.

[Ellon · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars (I loved it)

This is a such a fun and informative book about air. There is lots of true facts about air but it's presented with a fun character, Puff, and the reverence given to Puff ends up making this nonfiction book a love letter to air (weird sentence to write but I don't know how else to explain it).

[Louise Aamodt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish I'd have had this book when I taught the second grade Air & Weather unit! Its conversational tone carries us into the air, under the waves, and below ground to see all the ways that air helps sustain life. Engaging illustrations keep this from feeling like a 'lesson.' Bonus point for when Puff meets up with his friend Drop, and we see how air and water combine forces.

[Manda Marigold · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book contains facts about air. The book delves deep into what air does for us as humans and for the planet the book uses succinct language and a cute little drawing appropriately named Puff to explain how the processes work Overall, this book was engaging and educational.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super cute, would make a good early elementary read aloud.

[Robin Leach · Rating 5 out of 5]

We all need to breathe.

[Meredith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute but not quite science-y enough for my Mock Caldecott.

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the world's most informative informational book, but is a good jumping off point. The picture book format and characterization makes for an appealing book for younger readers.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cute and educational!