The Stranded Whale

by Jane Yolen, Melanie Cataldo (Illustrator)

Overview

Tender and heartrending, Jane Yolen’s clear-eyed tale of a child’s effort to rescue a beached whale evokes a fierce love of wildlife and a universal sense of loss.

Sally and her brothers are walking home from school along the dunes in their Maine town when they come upon an enormous whale. He’s stranded on the beach. Her brother runs for help, and many people rally to respond, but the tide is going out quickly and the whale is just so big. Still, Sally is able to sit near the whale’s massive eye and tell him he’s beautiful and strong, and that she will miss him no matter what happens. Master storyteller Jane Yolen and illustrator Melanie Cataldo have created an authentic portrait of vulnerability that is at once spare, moving, and honest.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780763669539
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	07/16/2015
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	685,711
Product dimensions:	10.40(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	AD890L (what's this?)
Age Range:	5 - 9 Years

About the Author

Jane Yolen is the recipient of the Sydney Taylor Body-of-Work Award in recognition of the more than 400 books she has written for children and young adults, including the Caldecott Medal winner Owl Moon and the New York Times bestseller How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? With Candlewick Press, she is the editor of three collections of poems for children: Switching on the Moon: A Very First Book of Bedtime Poems; Here’s a Little Poem: A Very First Book of Poetry; and This Little Piggy: Lap Songs, Finger Plays, Clapping Games, and Pantomime Rhymes. She divides her time between Massachusetts and Scotland.

Melanie Cataldo is an illustrator who studied at Syracuse University and the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. The Stranded Whale is her first book. She lives in Massachusetts.

Editorial Reviews

08/03/2015
It is 1971, and a girl named Sally and her brothers are walking home across the sand dunes of their Maine town when she sees "this big gray thing, humped on the drying sand." It's a beached gray whale, which Sally attempts to help by soaking her sweater in the ocean and squeezing water over the unmoving animal. Debut artist Cataldo's grainy, ash-toned oil and pencil illustrations emphasize the physical enormity of the dying whale, as well as the children's desperation and helplessness. Though neighbors arrive with buckets and attempt to push the whale toward the receding tide, it becomes clear that their efforts are to no avail: "I was too mad to cry. Mad at the unforgiving ocean, rushing away from shore. Mad at our short arms and the whale's long body." Even after being praised by the community for her efforts, the girl refuses to relinquish her anger. It's an achingly sad story about accepting the limits of one's power, delivered with lyricism and poise. Ages 5–9. Author's agent: Elizabeth Harding, Curtis Brown. (July)

Publishers Weekly

This poignant story reminds readers that despite human efforts, not all living beings can be saved and honestly portrays the frustration and sadness that can result. A thought-provoking choice.
—School Library Journal

It's an achingly sad story about accepting the limits of one's power, delivered with lyricism and poise. Ages 5–9.
—Publishers Weekly

A moving, memorable addition to the nature collection.
—Kirkus Reviews

Readers unfamiliar with life on the coast will find this tale compelling; those who have grown up near the ocean may empathize with the narrator’s anger at the injustice of the whale’s death. All will be moved by the powerful story.
—School Library Connection

From the Publisher

06/01/2015
Gr 1–4—While walking home from school along the Maine coast, Sally and her two brothers see a beached whale. With the tide ebbing, they rush to wet down the animal's tail and fins. After Josh runs to summon help, adult volunteers and Coast Guard members arrive. Efforts to move the whale prove futile. As Sally talks to it, the animal lets out "a huge sigh like the wind off the ocean" and dies. When a Coast Guard man present medals to the children, Sally expresses the irony to herself. "So, the whale died and we were heroes." Yolen masterfully conveys both the urgency of Sally's rush to save the whale and her anger and sorrow at its death. An author's note explains her decision to set the story in 1971, when lack of cell phones would delay the arrival of both helpers and broadcasters. She also discusses possible reasons for beachings, which usually end with the whale's death. Cataldo's paintings employ the grays, steel blues, and browns of a northern coastline. Clothing colors are also muted, and daylight gives way to evening, adding to the low-key and pensive mood. VERDICT This poignant story reminds readers that despite human efforts, not all living beings can be saved and honestly portrays the frustration and sadness that can result. A thought-provoking choice.—Kathy Piehl, Minnesota State University Library, Mankato

School Library Journal

2015-04-29
A whale stranding becomes the occasion for a sad life lesson. Discovering a beached whale on the shore near their Maine home, Sally and her brothers, aided by the Coast Guard, do all they can to save it, without success. Yolen wisely sets her story in 1971, a time uncomplicated by cellphones or hovering parents. Sally's straightforward account is set in short lines on the double-page spreads. Through her voice, readers hear the surprise of their first encounter, the desperation of their efforts, their disappointment, and her anger and regret. Using digital and oil paints and pencil, debut illustrator Cataldo provides expansive seashore views and close-ups showing just a portion of the massive whale at a time. At one point readers see the whole scene in the distance as the children first did; another angle, high in the sky, shows a small Sally running toward the waves in an effort to get water to the drying whale. The darkness of the end is echoed in the dimly lit walk home, a sad family dinner, and the blue background of Sally's dream sea, which almost drowns the words of her going-to-sleep wish to have seen it "heading out to deep water, / lifting its tail, and diving deep, / and free." A moving, memorable addition to the nature collection. (author's note) (Picture book. 5-9)

Kirkus Reviews