The Birth of a Whale

By John Archambault
Illustrated by Janet Skiles
Silver Press/Simon & Schuster, $19.95

ISBN 0382395654
and

Listening to Whales Sing

By Faith McNulty
Illustrated by Lena Shiffman
Scholastic, $3.99

ISBN 0590478710


Buy or borrow this book!

Support your local independent bookseller

Find it in a WorldCat library

Compare prices at major online bookstores

Diving deep: for children, an ocean's worth
of lyrical books about the sea

Review by Paul Shackman

For young readers who like to read themselves (or younger ones who like to be read to), two new books outline some particulars of whale life. John Archambault's The Birth of a Whale, illustrated by Janet Skiles, describes that monumental event, its prelude and aftermath, in flowing prose. A humpback whale, "a fifty-ton mountain of shadowy grace," sings, dives, rolls and twists underwater, accompanied by her mate and, later, her three-ton calf. The art is saturated with the ultramarine, gray, and blue hues of the sea. (A cassette narration is available separately, or with the book as a set.)

In Listening to Whales Sing by Faith McNulty with functional illustrations by Lena Shiffman, a young girl joins a pair of scientists on a research expedition. Far out on the sea she hears strange music resounding through the depths: "brassy trumpets, sweet violins, deep, throaty horns" and "high, silvery voices singing a beautiful song." The singers are whales (humpbacks, apparently, though it isn't specified), the delicacy of their voices a striking contrast to their massive bulk. Finally, the girl glimpses a whale up close, an experience that must be, as John Archambault puts it, like seeing a mountain move.

Paul Shackman is a children's editor and reviewer from New York City.

©1996, ProMotion, inc.

www@bookpage.com