Wednesday, May 4, 2016

The Whale by Ethan Murrow -NO

Murrow, Ethan The Whale 20 pgs. Templar (Candlewick), 2015. $17.99 PICTURE BOOK
This mostly wordless story features to children who set out to prove that a giant spotted whale, first sighted by their grandparents, does indeed exist. They build a boat, get equipment, and face a stormy sea to look for the creature.
I was so thrilled to see a wordless book, but much less excited after reading this one. It features stunning black and white illustrations, which while beautiful to my grown up eyes, would be challenging to share with a group as they are so very dark. The plot just falls flat for me. It’s a whale. The ocean has whales. They are sure large, but giant enough to make the newspaper? Its doesn’t look like it from the illustrations. I am so confused why they think it’s a giant whale or why its so rare (I even looked at the newspaper articles to see if maybe this was set in some way future time where whales were thought to be extinct, but the paper doesn’t have a date).
EL (K-3), EL -NO Reviewer: Stephanie Elementary School Librarian & Author.

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