How does Ann Braden demonstrate the ways that the story’s four protagonists connect to one another, long before they ever meet? How do these four children relate to each other’s lives?

What does Libby mean when she says, “[M]y own two feet are rooted in the ground, and I’m blooming up and out into the world” (222)? Why do children need room to grow and be who they are, especially as they approach adolescence?

What do puffins symbolize to Vincent, and how do they become a significant symbol for the other protagonists as well? What does the book’s title, Flight of the Puffin, refer to?