Little Whale
I think the illustrations in this novel are fantastic. With the different shades of blue and white blanketing the pages, they create this dreamy and whimsical feeling to this children’s book. The large text is then set-off in these same identical colors which adds to this tranquil setting. It’s a sweet book about the long journey that a mother gray whale undertakes to get her baby to the cool Northern waters in spring.
Baby gray whales make this journey alone with their mothers every year and the gray whales in this book, show us how difficult and long this journey actually is. As Little Whale leaves the warm waters of the south, he questions his mother where they are headed. She tells him that they are beginning a long journey home. It truly is a long journey for Little Whale but Gray Whale is there, right beside her baby. Along the way, we see/read about how difficult the journey is for Little Whale.
What bothered me a bit about this book was that the mother was called Gray Whale in this book and not mother or Mother, Gray Whale. I knew she was the mother because of a note in the back of the book about migration and mother and calves. Also, in the text it states, “Gray Whale led her baby…” I just thought that was different and it bothered me a bit.
I thought this was a cute book, a marvelous story of the bond between a mother and her child. I really enjoyed Jo Weaver’s Little One children book also.
