children’s book review – The Snail and the Whale
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Time for another book review! For the last month or so we have been combining bedtime routine as the boys gear up for sharing a room. This means less baby board books for Tom and he has done great listening to and enjoying longer stories.
A few days ago, Sam asked me if a whale on a TV commercial was a Humpback whale. I asked where he had learned about different kinds of whales and he said “the snail and the whale of course!!”
This isn’t a book we read all the time. Sam got it for Christmas 2 years ago and I think we’ve read it 15 times or so…but he learned something.
Sam has really started to seem like a science kid. He has zero interest in letters or numbers or writing his name or flash card memorization at this time. Instead he tells me all about migration and hibernation and dinosaurs
going extinct.
The other day he told me all about mammals coming after the dinosaurs and wanted to know what comes next after that. He has always had an interest in the planets and solar system.
What’s funny is he doesn’t know most of this stuff from a lesson. He picks it up from a book or TV show that only mentions say, migration or Humpback whales, in passing. And then he fills in the blanks. He likes a story.
So, even though this is not an education book per se, every book is. And your kid may learn something while enjoying the silly story. I really do enjoy the cadence of the rhymes in this one too. So it’s earned the spot of April children’s book review!
The Snail and the Whale
It’s all fun and games until the day the whale is beached! Lucky for him, his friend the snail can write messages and comes to the rescue. Illustrations are great and the rhymes are everywhere. It’s an excellent book to read out loud and I could see it going over well in library and classroom story time.
This is the whale who came one night
when the tide was high and the stars were bright.
A humpback whale, immensely long,
who sang to the snail a wonderful song
of shimmering ice and coral caves
and shooting stars and enormous waves.
And this is the tail of the humpback whale.
He held it out of the starlit sea
and said to the snail,
“Come sail with me.”
See above the new bedtime story pillow–the baby bump!
