Herein, the Kadomtsev-Petviashvili equation with variable coefficients is investigated, which describes the long waves with small amplitude and slow dependence on the transverse coordinate in a single-layer shallow fluid. Breather wave solutions are obtained based on a variable-coefficient three-wave approach.The dynamical behaviors of the obtained solutions are graphically discussed for different choices of the free parameters in these solutions. KEYWORDS dynamical behavior, breather wave solutions, Kadomtsev-Petviashvili equation, variable-coefficient three-wave approach MSC CLASSIFICATION 35C08; 68M07; 33F10 wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/mma