Have You Ever Heard a Whale Exhale?
ISBN 9781998129072 • Pownal Street Press • 2024
10" × 8" • 32 pages
$24.95 Hardcover available at fine bookstores and online.
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U.S. customers, please click on this Bookshop.org link to pre-order your copy of this book.
Book Description
This fanciful coastal adventure for kids of all ages brings the senses to life!
In this splash of a tale, author Caroline Woodward and illustrator Claire Watson take us on an exploratory journey from sun-warmed rocks to crackling campfires, from below the waves to up in the sky. The book will have readers leaping with the dolphins and barking with the sea lions. On a journey of touch, taste, sight and smell, this whale of a tale urges littles to explore their surroundings and put their imaginations to work.
Reviews
"With humour and rhyme, Caroline Woodward, who wrote the text for beautifully illustrated picture books A West Coast Summer (2018) and Singing Away the Dark (2017), again takes us to her beloved West Coast to really take in all the sensory experiences that life there offers. We will hear, and see, and smell, and taste, and learn and wonder at the unique ecosystem that is the ocean and its coast from those who live and enjoy it.
Have you ever heard a whale exhale
and SLAP the water with its tail?
Breathing in after breathing out,
heaving WHOOSH with a mighty spout!
Our visit to the West Coast has us listening to a whale as it breaches, breathing and tail slapping and spouting. Its behaviours may be typical but to any observer they are captivating and revealing. Such are the actions of the seals who spy-hop to see what's going on–one with a monocle suggests they are paying close attention–or of the oystercatcher, a shore bird, who can pry open molluscs.
And what of the smelly sea lions and the squawking seagulls, eagles and dolphins? All have their place and ways of living that intrigue and reveal life on and near the ocean. But Caroline Woodward also includes humans who are invited to think about what it means to be these animals and the ocean and what living on it and near it is truly like.
By phrasing her text as a series of questions, Caroline Woodward invites the reader to think about the ocean, its animals and their behaviours, including those of humans on the water, at a campfire or something else. Questions like "Have you ever felt the freezing north wind blow...?" or "Have you ever wondered why eagles love to fly..?" encourage young readers to look and smell and feel a little deeper about the coast and its inhabitants and not take for granted that which makes the West Coast their home.
Like Caroline Woodward, illustrator Claire Victoria Watson is a creator in British Columbia. Her visual art blends a variety of media including pen and ink, watercolours, and acrylic, with some digital design. Though the media she uses are plentiful, there is still a simplicity to her art that helps the readers focus on the smells–wavy lines emanating from the sea lions make this clear–or the sounds or the visuals of the scenes depicted. And though she follows Caroline Woodward's text to bring life to Have You Ever Heard a Whale Exhale?, Claire Victoria Watson also adds her touches of humour. There are the cormorants with the clothespins on their noses, the gray whales fine dining on herring roe, and a cowboy-hatted octopus square dancing or at least trying to. The message about the ocean and the diversity of its animals is never lost but it is told playfully as well as naturally.
Have You Ever Heard a Whale Exhale? may not cover every animal that lives in the ocean or near it, but it does cover an important message of appreciating our natural world so that we might protect it and all its inhabitants.
Helen Kubiw, CanLit for LittleCanadians
“The rollicking and lushly illustrated tale leads readers on an amusing journey into the quirky wonders of the sea, sky and stars … Readers of all ages will chuckle at the antics portrayed in this light-hearted story. A perfect read before - or after - a beach or woods outing and even on a rainy day while stuck inside.”
Paula Wild, award-winning author of seven books including Return of the Wolf: Conflict & Coexistence (Douglas & McIntyre 2018) and The Cougar: Beautiful, Wild and Dangerous (Douglas & McIntyre 2013)
"Like Woodward, Claire Victoria Watson knows that playfulness is more effective than preachiness in winning over a young audience. Watson cements her reputation as a visual chronicler of the British Columbia’s West Coast in visually arresting, light-hearted illustrations that neatly complement and augment the text. The kinaesthetic image of humans entangled in a dance with an octopus is particularly memorable."
Ginny Ratsoy, The British Columbia Review
"For jaunty, rhyming oceanic fun, look no further than Caroline Woodward and Claire Victoria Watson’s lively Have You Ever Heard a Whale Exhale?. Combining naturalistic animal and landscape illustrations with whimsically entertaining spreads, the Canadian duo of author Caroline Woodward and visual artist Claire Victoria Watson bring readers a treat for the senses."
Michelle, FAB BOOK REVIEWS
Claire's Colouring Page for Kids!
Click image (or here) to download a printable full size version of this colouring page.
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