Thursday, July 28, 2011

The Secret World of Whales by Charles Siebert -ESSENTIAL

Siebert, Charles and Illustrated by Baker, Molly The Secret World of Whales, 112pgs. Chronicle Books, 2011. $13.25. NON-FICTION
Everything a student might want to know about whales including: legends, history, biology, sociology, and human interaction.
That short description sounds really dry, but this book was far from it! It was beautifully constructed with a great palate of designs, colors, illustrations, and photographs. The text was incredibly inclusive and yet managed to maintain an appropriate tone and language level for elementary students. Woven throughout was the authors personal experiences with whales and stories of awe and wonder that provided a lot of extra heart. Having worked as a volunteer on a humpback whale research team a number of years ago and being somewhat of a whale junkie, I found this book to be accurate and even touching. I think in the right hands readers will be soon be transformed into ‘save the whales’ activists.
Elementary -ESSENTIAL. Reviewer: Stephanie MLS graduate.

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