Flight of the Puffin, by Ann Braden

     In Flight of the Puffin, the second book by author Braden, she tells the story of four different teens, living four very different lives, connected by a random idea that one of these young people has to create small index cards with hopeful messages on them and place them around town. One of the main characters, and narrators, Jack, is trying to save his small rural school from being closed down for the school board because the school does not offer gender-neutral bathrooms. Jack takes up the fight to save his school from having to change - out of love for his school and community - but his stand is seen as hatred and is quickly turned to something it isn't in the local press. Thanks to the random cards, and consequent conversations with others, Jack changes his mind. His empathy grows - his ability to put himself in someone else's shoes, so to speak.

    All four of the main characters are searching for their voices in this story, and the card idea is based on a real-life group called the Local Love Brigade. The ideas in this book would, alone, earn it 5 paws from me, but even though this is a truly important story, it wasn't written as strongly as the ideas it is sharing. So a good book, for sure, but the characters didn't stick with me after the final page (the message of empathy did, though, which I wagged at!). This book is getting a lot of good reviews, which it should, and I'm giving it one here, too! But 4 paws, not 5.