There'a a Book for That: Whale Tales
August feels like a fine time to showcase the most august of mammals…whales! It’s well known that whales are the largest marine mammals called cetaceans and the blue whale, specifically, is the largest animal on Earth. Unfortunately, climate change has affected whale habitats, food sources, and migration patterns. In a sea of titles, our whale watching has turned up the following pod of classic, new, and popular books for the whole family:
A stunning debut from an award-winning writer, about loss, isolation, folklore, and the joy and dissonance of finding oneself by exploring life outside one’s community.
“Whale Fall is a powerful novel, written with a calm, luminous precision, each feeling rendered with chiseled care, the drama of island life unfolding with piercing emotional accuracy.” —Colm Toibin.
Eight-year-old Kahu craves her great-grandfather’s love and attention. But he is focused on his duties as chief of a Māori tribe in Whangara, on the east coast of New Zealand—a tribe that claims descent from the legendary “whale rider.” In every generation since the whale rider, a male has inherited the title of chief. But now there is no male heir—there’s only Kahu. She should be the next in line for the title, but her great-grandfather is blinded by tradition and sees no use for a girl. Kahu will not be ignored. And in her struggle, she has a unique ally: the whale rider himself, from whom she has inherited the ability to communicate with whales. Once that sacred gift is revealed, Kahu may be able to reestablish her people’s ancestral connections, earn her great-grandfather’s attention, and lead her tribe to a bold new future.
A Read with Jenna Pick
One blustery night in 1928, a whale washes up on the shores of the English Channel. By law, it belongs to the King, but twelve-year-old orphan Cristabel Seagrave has other plans. She and the rest of the household build a theatre from the beast’s skeletal rib cage. Within the Whalebone Theatre, Cristabel can escape her feckless stepparents and brisk governesses, and her imagination comes to life. As Cristabel grows into a headstrong young woman, World War II rears its head. She and her brother Digby become British secret agents on separate missions in Nazi-occupied France—a more dangerous kind of playacting, it turns out, and one that threatens to tear the family apart.
Nick Pyenson’s research has given us the answers to some of our biggest questions about whales. He takes us deep inside the Smithsonian’s unparalleled fossil collections, to frigid Antarctic waters, and to the arid desert in Chile, where scientists race against time to document the largest fossil whale site ever found. Full of rich storytelling and scientific discovery, Spying on Whales spans the ancient past to an uncertain future—all to better understand the most enigmatic creatures on Earth.
A rich and captivating novel set amid the witty, high-spirited literary society of 1850s New England, offering a new window on Herman Melville’s emotionally charged relationship with Nathaniel Hawthorne and how it transformed his masterpiece, Moby-Dick. Melville dedicated Moby-Dick to Hawthorne, and Mark Beauregard’s novel fills in the story behind that dedication with historical accuracy and exquisite emotional precision, reflecting his nuanced reading of the real letters and journals of Melville, Hawthorne, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and others. An exuberant tale of longing and passion, The Whale captures not only a transformative relationship—long the subject of speculation—between two of our most enduring authors, but also their exhilarating moment in history, when a community of high-spirited and ambitious writers was creating truly American literature for the first time.
In part, Moby-Dick is the story of an eerily compelling madman pursuing an unholy war against a creature as vast and dangerous and unknowable as the sea itself. But more than just a novel of adventure, more than an encyclopedia of whaling lore and legend, Moby-Dick is a haunting, mesmerizing, and important social commentary populated with several of the most unforgettable and enduring characters in literature. Written with wonderfully redemptive humor, Moby-Dick is a profound and timeless inquiry into character, faith, and the nature of perception.
WHALES: An Illustrated Celebration by Kelsey Oseid
FOR YOUNGER READERS
From the author of Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries, this summer story has everything: the trials and pleasures of friendship, a rousing feud and a touch of adventure, a beautiful exploration of healing after grief, a very moving finale, and a whole lot of whale-watching fascination.
Plunge deep into the awe-inspiring true story of a freediver’s encounter with a newborn sperm whale and its family. Told from the vantage point of Belgian freediver Fred Buyle, who with his diving partner Kurt Amsler are the only people known to be present at the birth of a sperm whale, In the World of Whales features lyrical-yet-precise text by Michelle Cusolito and dreamlike illustrations by Jessica Lanan, creator of the Sibert Honor book Jumper: A Day in the Life of a Backyard Jumping Spider. Any child who dreams of speaking to animals will adore this proof of humanity’s bond with the wild world. At the end of the story, find more information about freediving and whales.
This gorgeous compendium features all of the major whale species, from blue whales to belugas, right whales to minke whales, narwhals to orcas, and even dolphins. (Yes, dolphins are whales, too!) Get the inside scoop on how these beloved ocean mammals live, what they eat, and how they hunt, play, communicate, and care for their young.
Follow a blue whale’s enormous body to the bottom of the ocean, where it sets the stage for a bustling new ecosystem to flourish. All living things must one day die, and Earth’s largest creature, the majestic blue whale, is no exception. But in nature, death is never a true ending. When this whale closes her eyes for the last time in her 90-year life, a process known as whale fall is just beginning. Her body will float to the surface, then slowly sink through the deep; from inflated behemoth to clean-picked skeleton, it will offer food and shelter at each stage to a vast diversity of organisms, over the course of a century and beyond.
The award-winning and USA Today bestselling story of a deaf girl’s connection to a whale whose song can’t be heard by his species, and the journey she takes to help him. Full of heart and poignancy, this affecting story by sign language interpreter Lynne Kelly shows how a little determination can make big waves.
“Fascinating, brave, and tender…a triumph.” –Katherine Applegate
A moving, poetic story about a whale in captivity who longs for the ocean . . . because whales don’t belong in fishbowls, do they?
For more information on these and related titles visit Whale Tales
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