The Tale of the Whale

Where land becomes sky and the sky becomes sea,/ I first saw the whale …/ and the whale first saw me./ And high on the breeze came his sweet-sounding song – / ‘I’ve so much to show you, if you’ll come along.’ So begins a small child’s magical journey on the back of a huge and beautiful baleen whale. Together they sail the oceans, dancing with dolphins, diving through the blue seas and exploring the ocean beds ‘with carpets of colours that breathed with the sea.’ Watched by a polar bear and her cub, they splash so high from the icy seas that the child feels they’re flying, not since The Snowman has a journey conjured so much sheer joy, connection and imagination. But the tone changes when the whale becomes hungry – opening his mouth wide along with the soup of the ocean he swallows the debris discarded by humans, and the child realises what the whale wants people to see. They travel home saddened and both crying, but the child promises to tell the whale’s tale and on the final page challenges us to change the world too. The story doesn’t dodge the size of the problem we face, but that final direct message is given from a beach of golden sand, where other children clean up litter and play together. It’s empowering and positive, a fitting end to a book that explores our connection with the natural world, text and images working beautifully together.