Nonfiction Wednesday
Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday is hosted by Kid Lit Frenzy and was started to help promote the reading of nonfiction texts. Most Wednesdays, we will be participating and will review a nonfiction text (though it may not always be a picture book).
Be sure to visit Kid Lit Frenzy and see what other nonfiction books are shared this week!
If I Were a Whale
Author: Shelley Gill
Illustrator: Erik Brooks
Published February 21st, 2017 by Little Bigfoot
Summary: From best-selling children’s author Shelley Gill comes this colorful, rhyming board book playfully featuring whales found in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Arctic Oceans. Toddlers will love to learn about whales swimming in the deep blue sea in this beautifully illustrated board book that shares simple whale facts in an imaginative way.
If I could be anything, do you know what I’d be? I’d be a whale in the deep blue sea.
Scooping up fishes and flipping my tail, I’d be a minke or beluga whale.
About the Author: Shelley Gill was the fifth woman to complete the Iditarod race. When she’s not writing, Shelley travels to schools around the country where she covers a variety of topics–from whale watching to how she thinks up her writing ideas.
About the Illustrator: Erik Brooks spent much of his childhood in Anchorage, AK, where he explored the outdoors and had Alaskan experiences such as seeing the occasional moose wandering through the yard and getting run over by a dog sled. He still loves getting out into nature with his family and his handsome mutt of a dog, Max.
Review: If I Were a Whale is the perfect mix of rhyming poetry and scientific facts. Gill guides us through different oceans visiting different types of whales glimpsing at how each lives their life. This book maybe just a tiny introduction to whales, but the illustrations and text will make the reader want to read it again and then go learn more. Trent, as soon as we were done reading it, asked for it again, but the second time through included a lot more questions about the different whales. I see this book being read often in our future because Trent is a big fan of animals and science as well as good rhythmic picture books. I also want to commend the artist as each page is a beautiful scene with the highlighted whale and its habitat.
Teachers’ Tools for Navigation: In early education, it is so important to introduce young children to as much as possible to help their knowledge grow of our tremendously complicated and full world. If I Were a Whale is a perfect read aloud book that kids will love but will also introduce them to different whales, other animals, and geography.
Discussion Questions: Which whale would you want to be? Why?; Why do whales live in different oceans?; What other animals did you see in the book? Why were they in the illustrations or text?; How are the whales alike? Different?
Flagged Passages:
Read This If You Loved: Baby Beluga by Raffi, If I Were a Penguin by Anne Wilkinson, Giant Squid by Candace Fleming, O is for Orca by Andrea Helman, Books about whales or other ocean animals
Recommended For:
**Thank you to Nicole at Little Bigfoot for providing a copy for review!**
