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A Whale in the Bathtub

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A Whale in the Bathtub

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Overview

Praise for A Whale in the Bathtub: “This exuberantly illustrated tale is perfect for pre-scrub reading.” —Weekend Australia

“Superb storytelling and lively illustrations combine perfectly to make a great read.”
—Parents in Touch (UK)

Bruno! It's bath time! But there’s a whale in the bathtub—a huge, tub-hogging, bubble-bath-squirting, flipper-scrubbing, barnacle-rinsing whale! Worse yet, no one believes Bruno when he says the tub is full. The whale refuses to budge. How will Bruno ever get clean?

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About the Author

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780544535350
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	06/07/2016
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	8.80(w) x 10.70(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	AD490L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 7 Years

About the Author

Kylie Westaway is a children's book author, playwright, and world-traveler who works for Australia's largest independent publishing house. She lives in Sydney.

Tom Jellett has illustrated many books for children, and he has created editorial cartoons for adults. He lives in Sydney.

From the B&N Reads Blog

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Editorial Reviews

04/11/2016
In Westaway’s first picture book, originally published in Australia, a whale has invaded the bathtub of a boy named Bruno; worse, it isn’t even an especially nice whale. “You could have knocked!” says the cetacean before shooing Bruno out of the bathroom. Bruno tries to explain the situation to his family, but no one believes him. “You’re always making things up,” says sister Ally while watching TV. “A whale can’t fit in the bathtub,” says Bruno’s serious older brother. “It’s just impossible.” A “shower” courtesy of the whale’s blowhole keeps Bruno from getting in trouble for not bathing, though, as his mother notes, “You smell a bit fishy!” While there isn’t much of a story arc, Jellett (Two Tough Crocs) makes the most of the improbable situation, filling the bathroom with bubbles and white spray to emphasize the mess the whale is making and using crayonlike red scribbles on Bruno’s cheeks to highlight his growing irritation. Sometimes, Westaway suggests, you just have to give in to a situation that’s out of your control—or, better yet, leave it for your sister to deal with. Ages 4–7. (June)

Publishers Weekly

"Throughout, Jellett's illustrations augment the text's humor with lots of movement and expressive characters, and such details as endpapers decorated with a krill motif in reference to the whale's favorite food provide visual interest that expands on the story." —Kirkus "A no-fail picture book read-aloud that should elicit more than a few good laughs." —School Library Journal —

From the Publisher

05/01/2016
PreS-Gr 2—Bruno has a "whale" of a problem lying in his bathtub: a demanding, self-absorbed blue whale who prefers warm bath water to the ocean and would rather have krill-scented bubble bath than Bruno's bubble-gum scented one. Each time the boy attempts to take his bath, the whale hogs the tub and kicks Bruno out to contend with his skeptical parents and siblings, who cannot fathom such a ludicrous whale tale at bath time. Just as he is about to get into even worse trouble, Bruno's big new friend comes up with a king-size idea to give him the best kind of cleaning—all with the splash of his tail. Jellett's quirky, retro illustrations present an untidy-looking Bruno with scribbly red cheeks and scraggly hair, suiting the delightful absurdity of the story perfectly. The whale is presented in parts, rather than whole: initially with a single eye and mouth, next with a massive flipper, and altogether just oddly distorted. This clearly demonstrates that whales are simply too big to fit entirely in any bathtub. Younger children will appreciate what it means to present implausible obstacles at bath time, while older ones might ponder the more practical matter of how much bigger a standard-size whale is compared to a typical tub. VERDICT A no-fail picture book read-aloud that should elicit more than a few good laughs.—Etta Anton, Yeshiva of Central Queens, NY

School Library Journal

2016-03-30
This Australian import offers up something of a fish story about a whale.Although he claims to have found a whale in his bathtub, it seems that Bruno's family fancies him a boy who cries wolf. Neither his parents nor his siblings believe him when he says he can't bathe because of the whale's presence, and readers are left to wonder whether the scenes showing him with the (rather demanding) whale are imagined or part of a fantastic reality. By the book's end it seems the latter is the case: when his sister goes into the bathroom after Bruno's predicament is solved with a blowhole shower, she finds both the whale and a whale-size mess. Throughout, Jellett's illustrations augment the text's humor with lots of movement and expressive characters, and such details as endpapers decorated with a krill motif in reference to the whale's favorite food provide visual interest that expands on the story. Bruno and his family are uniformly portrayed as dark-haired and sepia-skinned.Good, clean fun. (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews

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