Moby Dick: Chasing the Great White Whale

by Eric A. Kimmel, Andrew Glass (Illustrator)

Overview

AHOY!

Come with us aboard the Pequod.

We search for Moby Dick,

the Great White Whale!

Along with Captain Ahab,

you'll meet danger face to face,

hunting the fiercest creature

the seas have ever known!

Are you brave enough-

and bold enough-

for the adventure of your life?

The award-winning author and illustrator team of Eric A. Kimmel and Andrew Glass introduce a new generation of readers to a magnificent and memorable retelling of Herman Melville's masterpiece, Moby Dick.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781466820470
Publisher:	Feiwel & Friends
Publication date:	09/04/2012
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	40
File size:	35 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	4 - 6 Years

About the Author

Eric A. Kimmel is the author of over a hundred books for children. He and his wife live in Portland, Oregon, only a two-hour drive from the ocean, where they watch the migration of the gray whales every year.

Andrew Glass is the author and illustrator of many books for children, including the Newbery Honor books Graven Images: Three Stories by Paul Fleischman and The Wish Giver: Three Tales of Coven Tree by Bill Brittain. Andrew lives in Manhattan with his wife and daughter.

Editorial Reviews

“This rollicking yarn with its splendid art will serve as a stand-alone introduction.” —School Library Journal

“Kimmel make[s] this classic accessible to young readers.” —Publishers Weekly

“Kimmel's verse touches on all the major plot points, from Ahab pinning the gold doubloon to the mast to the final disastrous encounter…” —Booklist

“Herman Melville's legendary and lengthy tome is beautifully encapsulated in a jaunty rhyme sprinkled with historical and nautical terms. An author's note gives further information about the story in addition to Melville's own story. There is also a glossary for some of the more unusual words. The illustrations lavishly fill each spread, evoking thoughts of the monstrous beast while the cross-hatching and grain echo the creature's skin, and the choppy movement of the waves even when the action is taking place on dry land. This is a wonderful, short-attention-span-friendly addition to any library.” —Children's Literature

“Kimmel's rhymes scan with clarity from the start, and he has a genius for synthesizing the loquacious storyline down to its plot essentials. …The high point of the title turns out to be Glass' art. His oil-and-pencil illustrations create a white whale hide interlaced with the scars of countless harpooners, his sheer girth a towering mountain of angry flesh. Readers will have little difficulty understanding the awe inspired by such a creature. For a bare-bones retelling of the original's plot, this has no equal.” —Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

Melville's classic gets a lush, if wildly oversimplified, retelling under its author's generally sure hand. Call him Ishmael. To rhyming verse, one lad's adventures on the Pequod are retold in brief, generally accurate detail. Readers meet the harpooner Queequeg (ambiguous ethnicity and tattooed head intact), the obsessed Ahab (red eyes matching that of the titular whale's) and the crew. Ahab challenges his men to spot the leviathan, and after much searching, they find it, marking the beginning of the end for the Pequod and its crew. Kimmel's rhymes scan with clarity from the start, and he has a genius for synthesizing the loquacious storyline down to its plot essentials. A pity he chooses to end the retelling with the simplistic and wholly un-Melville-ian lesson, "The moral of this story is, / as my sad tale has shown: / Respect all creatures, great and small, / and leave the whales alone!" The high point of the title turns out to be Glass' art. His oil-and-pencil illustrations create a white whale hide interlaced with the scars of countless harpooners, his sheer girth a towering mountain of angry flesh. Readers will have little difficulty understanding the awe inspired by such a creature. For a bare-bones retelling of the original's plot, this has no equal. Just don't expect any more than that. (author's note, glossary) (Picture book. 6-10)

Kirkus Reviews