Big Blue Whale (Read and Wonder Series)

by Nicola Davies, Nick Maland (Illustrator)

Overview

Equally majestic as the biggest animal that has ever lived — the Big Blue Whale.

Read and Wonder books tell stories, take children on adventures,
and reveal how big and WONDER-full the natural world really is.
Back matter includes an index.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780763610807
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	05/01/2001
Series:	Read and Wonder
Edition description:	1ST U.S. P
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	489,666
Product dimensions:	9.06(w) x 9.88(h) x 0.14(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Nicola Davies says, "Now there is so much man-made noise in the ocean that the blue whales are having trouble hearing one another. Unlike humpbacks, their booming hums are infrequent, so it is always exciting when we locate one."

Nick Maland says, "I have illustrated for newspapers and magazines over the years, but it was not until my daughter was born that
I turned to children's books!"

Editorial Reviews

Two whale experts communicate huge enthusiasm for their subject...light-hearted [and] fact-filled...Varied typefaces add further verve. Delicate ink crosshatching with watery washes both emphasize the whale's enormity and show it to be dwarfed by the vastness of the ocean.
—Publishers Weekly

[T]he blue whale gets an up-close look in this artfully composed study. Zoological facts are phrased to suit the book's inviting picture book format...This book will definitely satisfy youngsters' curiosity about 'the biggest creature that has ever lived on Earth!'
—Booklist

From the Publisher

K-Gr 3Small human figures make occasional comic appearances in the pictures, but this handsome slim volume is an informative introduction to the life of "the biggest creature that has ever lived on Earth." In an effective opening double-page scene, a young man and woman reach up toward an elephant and a giraffe, all of them standing next to the tail end of the whale, demonstrating its enormous size. Davies offers simple, lively descriptions of the blue whale's body, eating habits, child care, migration, and means of communication. "Yet, the blue whale may not be as lonely as it seems. Because sometimes it makes a huma hum so loud and so low that it can travel for thousands of miles through the seas to reach other blue whales." Maland's cross-hatched pen-and-ink drawings, washed in soft tones of blue, gray, aqua, and orange, sometimes appear as smaller, blocked scenes, but more often they fill the double-page spreads with bits of caption gracefully curving around related picture elements. A simple index appears at the front of the book, doubling as a table of contents. Some libraries may assign this to the picture-book shelves, where it will be read as a true-life story, but it will serve equally well as nonfiction. It's a pleasing choice for reading aloud or for classroom use.Margaret Bush, Simmons College, Boston

School Library Journal

Conversational text and soft, crosshatched pen-and-ink illustrations ebb and flow in a fluid look at the largest mammal ever to inhabit the earth.

Invoking the senses, Davies describes the blue whale's physical attributes in irresistible, crystalline terms. Its skin is "springy and smooth like a hard-boiled egg, and it's as slippery as wet soap." The enormity of the blue whale comes into focus in the illustrations that place it next to a giraffe and an elephant, bringing it into the everyday realm of children. The scale of this leviathan becomes even clearer when Davies notes that its eyes are the size of teacups and its ears are no larger than the end of a pencil. She covers its yearly migration, and its diet of 30 million tiny krill in just a day. Undulating bold text provides auxiliary facts that complement the main story. Effective use of shrinking and expanding typeface and the inclusion of two human observers accentuate the proportional vastness of both the creature and its ocean. This unassuming book is teeming with new discoveries upon each rereading.

Kirkus Reviews