Whales Passing Book

A young boy stands on the beach with his father. As they watch the surf, a pod of Orca whales swim by. After wondering aloud whether the whales can talk like he does, the boy then imagines the whales' conversations, and whether they are talking about him under the bubbling waves, just as he talks about them on the land. "I bet those whales have signposts down below. An ocean mountain or a sunken ship. Maybe another whale that tells them, 'Follow me! We'll make a right at this white rock.' That is, if whales can talk." Backmatter provides facts about these magnificent animals.

Publishers Weekly

As striking as orcas themselves, Davis's (The Jolly Man) paintings of gamboling whales help keep this uneven tale afloat. From a cliff, a father and son watch a pod of whales at play. The boy narrates, a key source of the story's inauthentic feel. Bunting's (Little Bear's Little Boat, reviewed above) sharply honed observations are as exquisite as they are jarring, given the speaker's youth: "I watch the drifts that are their breaths.../ ...and then they dive,/ deep, deep among the streams of fish/ and star-dance light/ that fills their sea." The loosely rhymed text meanders through observations about the orcas, plus a fantasy of their thoughts about humans ("They lack our blubber, sad to say./ But humans have no love of fat./ Imagine that!"), which, from the boy's perspective, sends the giant mammals into gales of "whale laughter." Helpfully, the black-and-white beauties, showcased against clear, aqua tones, glow with Davis's almost reverential touch. Realistic and sharp-edged as a photograph, his illustrations rise to the text's imagery with steamy breaths reminiscent of a snow drift, and a gracefully composed "kite-tail string" of pelicans, yet his artwork conveys a deep respect; he never endows them with anthropomorphized traits. Bunting concludes the story with a densely packed page of orca facts-a thoughtful offering to ardent whale lovers willing to overlook a few vexing passages. Ages 4-up. (May) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.