If You Want to See a Whale

by Julie Fogliano, Erin E. Stead (Illustrator)

Overview

If you want to see a whale, you will need to know what not to look at.

Pink roses, pelicans, possible pirates . . .

If you want to see a whale, you have to keep your eyes on the sea, and wait . . .

and wait . . . and wait . . .

In this quiet and beautiful picture book by Julie Fogliano and Erin E. Stead, the team that created the Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor book And Then It's Spring, a boy learns exactly what it takes to catch a glimpse of an elusive whale. This title has Common Core connections.

A Neal Porter Book

A Publishers Weekly Best Children's Book of 2013

A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2013

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781596437319
Publisher:	Roaring Brook Press
Publication date:	05/07/2013
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	7.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	NP (what's this?)
Age Range:	2 - 6 Years

About the Author

Julie Fogliano is the New York Times bestselling author of And Then It’s Spring and If You Want to See a Whale as well as the poetry collection, When Green Becomes Tomatoes. Recipient of the 2013 the Ezra Jack Keats award, her books have been translated into more than ten languages. Julie lives in the Hudson Valley with her husband and three children. When she is not folding laundry or wondering what to make for dinner, she is staring out the window waiting for a book idea to fly by.

Erin E. Stead has illustrated several children's books with her husband, Philip C. Stead. Their first picture book, A Sick Day for Amos McGee, won the Caldecott Medal. She has also illustrated And Then It's Spring (written by Julie Fogliano) and contributed to Eric Carle's What's Your Favorite Animal? The Steads divide their time between Ann Arbor, Michigan, and New York City.

Editorial Reviews

This quiet book reminds us that daydreaming is a pleasurable activity for children, and that it can lead to a larger sense of the world…Fogliano's words are carved and measured. This is a writer who takes her time, and the leaps she makes with language surprise and thrill. Erin E. Stead…draws with a firm, spare hand, and her illustrations have a crafted, artisanal feel. They luxuriate in white space and unarticulated expanses of softened color that leave readers with room for their own thoughts…Not every child will drop anchor long enough to savor this resolutely understated story, but those who do will be glad they did.

The New York Times Book Review - Leonard S. Marcus

To find a picture book that attempts to explore the patient, persistent and solitary pursuit at the heart of creativity is unusual; to find one that succeeds in making such an abstract process comprehensible to children is extraordinary....The author-illustrator team responsible for the bestselling "And Then It's Spring" has again produced something truly unique, melding a hypnotic text with translucent, light-filled illustrations that invite young readers to climb aboard, row diligently, keep looking and experience the wonder of the journey for themselves.” —The Washington Post

“Fogliano's words are carved and measured. This is a writer who takes her time, and the leaps she makes with language surprise and thrill.” —The New York Times

“A gorgeous love song to the imagination . . . It's breathtaking . . . Fans will be waiting.” —Booklist, starred review

“Readers will gape at the two enormous, whale-sized talents at work in this transfixing picture book.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Stead’s pencil and linoleum prints—as delicate, understated, and imaginative as ever—take exciting creative license with Fogliano’s expressive writing.” —Starred Review, Publishers Weekly

“The same pair that brought us And Then It's Spring (rev. 1/12) returns with a book that has a similar overall feel but a completely different story. . . this one takes on the possibility of imagination.” —The Horn Book

“Her [Stead's] work is often a study in composition, with horizon lines recurring like a chorus, counterpointed with subtle or strong diagonals and swoops. The whale itself is legitimately humongous yet also clearly wise and benign, politely presenting itself to the presumably well-pleased whale searchers. This could be an inducement to some imaginary eyes-shut travel, or just an offbeat choice for sending kids off to dreamland.” —BCCB

From the Publisher

Fogliano and Stead (And Then It's Spring, 2012) produce another tender, timid story about a boy, his animal friends (a basset hound and a bird) and practicing patience. Whale watching requires lots of resolve to avoid distractions like birds, roses, pirate ships, clouds, pelicans and so on. Fogliano's exhaustive accounting of what not to notice artfully communicates the impossibility of unflagging focus. Her skeined advice unreels in a vivid, looping poem, while Stead's soft, accompanying artwork settles into subdued, simple compositions. Linoleum printing offers oceanic, undulating blues and greens, while pencil drawings bring the redheaded boy's freckles and his hound's drooping skin into focus. Stunning specificity surfaces in the poem's off-kilter phrasing (an inchworm's "just nibble scoot" across a leaf). The drifting verse floats and coalesces like the clouds that threaten to divert the boy from whale watching. When read aloud, it charms like an incantation. The poem's unresolved ellipses at the conclusion suggest an unending whale hunt, but Stead's final two images silently deliver what we've been waiting for. The whale, huge and hidden, floats beneath the unknowing child's tiny vessel and then twists its mass, pulling its head completely out of the water. The boy, his dog and bird rear back in wonder; readers will gape at the two enormous, whale-sized talents at work in this transfixing picture book. (Picture book. 2-6)

Kirkus Reviews