The Blue Whale and The Polar Bear, two books written and illustrated by Jenni Desmond

April 22nd is Earth Day, but this year it is also a day to March for Science, to celebrate the vital role that science plays in our lives and in the wider world around us. Earth Day and March for Science are especially important now that their needed funding for research, development and education is being threatened. I would share two of my favorite science books about two species that are also threatened due to causes like habitat loss, climate change and toxins in the waters where blue whales swim, and the Arctic region where polar bears live.

Once upon a time...
a young boy takes a book off a shelf, and, lying on his bed wearing a red crown that looks suspiciously like those tissue paper crowns that come in Christmas crackers, he begins to read a book called The Blue Whale. And so do we...

Desmond's lovely meta-fiction picture book introduces readers to the magnificence of "the largest living creature on our planet," the blue whale, through factual information, comparisons, and stunning illustrations. Using simple and direct language, readers learn, for example, that the world's largest creature has a big 1,300 pound heart, actually the size of a small car; that blue whales can weight as much as 160 tons, about the same as 55 hippopotami.

A blue whale's anatomy would, of course, require it to be proportional to its size, and thus, it has a 6" eye, a 3 ton tongue, and a mouth so big 50 people could stand inside it. Not surprisingly, a full grown whale eats four tons of food per day, mainly krill, a shrimp-like sea creature. A baby blue whale can drink up to 50 gallons of its mother's milk everyday.

Desmond's text is only half the story, and her beautiful illustrations tell the rest of the tale. Done in a combination of collage, paint and color pencil, with a palette of predominantly ocean-worthy blues and whites, they offer readers an interesting mixture of realistic and imaginative images.

Be sure to read the Author's Note at the beginning of the book to better understand what she is trying to do with this book. There's lots more information throughout The Blue Whale, just waiting for a curious child to come along and begin reading.

Just as she did in The Blue Whale, Jenni Desmond begins this book with a young girl sporting a red crown pulling a book from a shelf, and who then curls up on a couch with her favorite stuffies and begins reading The Polar Bear. And so do we...

In this meta-fiction picture book, readers learn all about the polar bear, its anatomy, its habitat, what it hunts and likes to eat. Polar bears, also called sea bears, spend most of their life in the frozen Arctic regions of the world, and have a body that has adapted to the harsh conditions there. Two layers of fur, a tough hide and a thick layer of fat really helps, as do their very big paws, each about the size of a dinner plate, that help them hunt, dig, swim, and make pretty good snow shoes. They are large animals, though not nearly as large as a blue whale, but, Desmond writes, more like the length of two seven year-old kids.

Polar bears need to eat a lot, but don't have to eat every day. Their main food sources are seals, walrus', narwhals, and beluga whales and a polar bear will walk long distances in search of food. They usually eat about 40 seals a year. Interestingly, polar bears get their water from the seals fat, because sea water is too salty to drink. Unlike other bears, polar bears don't hibernate, but can sleep for long periods of time, especially in summer when ice melts and food is hard to find.

These are just some of the interesting facts that Desmond shares with readers about the life of polar bears. And just as she did with The Blue Whale, Desmond lets the illustrations tell half the story. The mixed-media illustrations are done in combination of paint, crayon, color pencil, in a palette that is more versions of mainly icy blues and winter whites than I would have imagined possible.

Be sure to read the Author's Note at the beginning of this book to learn about the dangers faced by polar bears from the environment and from man. These beautiful bears are a very vulnerable and threatened species.

Both The Blue Whale and The Polar Bear are imaginative and informative at the same time. Each book succeeds in two ways - they celebrate reading nonfiction and they educate readers about an threatened creature. The presence of the young readers in places where they would not ever be found adds a fanciful note to these otherwise factual narratives, carrying a lovely message about how you can get lost in a good book. And these are two books that my young readers got very lost in.

These books are recommended for readers age 5+
These books were purchased for my personal library

April 22, 2017 is Earth Day

Blog Tour: Chasing at the Surface by Sharon Mentyka

It's fall in Washington state, the chum salmon are running in Dyes Inlet, and Marisa Gage, 12, along with her best friend Lena are out in a rowboat catching as many as salmon they can.  Suddenly, something strange is spotted in the water.  It turns out that a pod of 19 orca whales have made their way into the inlet to feed on the salmon.

For Marisa, the whales really bring some very difficult feelings of loss and abandonment to the surface.  Her mother had suddenly decided one day that she had to leave for reasons unknown to Marisa and her dad, causing their lives to turn upside down.  No longer able to afford their house, Marisa and her dad have moved into a houseboat.

Hurt and angry, Marisa has essentially shut her dad out of her life, and throws her mother's letters away unread.  But it was her mother who had been so fascinated by whales and who had taught her everything she knows about them. In fact, when they had spotted a new baby whale on vacation one year, Marisa had been allowed to name it, deciding to call it Muncher.

By day 3 of the whale sighting, a group of marine biologists is expected and Marisa's science teacher asks for volunteers to help them monitor the whales.  Marisa decides not to, even though she knows more about whales than most of the kids in her class, but Lena signs them both up anyway.

Now, all the talk and excitement about the whales is bringing up more and more memories that Marisa would rather not think about, made all the more difficult because this is the pod of which Muncher is part.  And Marisa knows that while there is still plenty of salmon for the whales to feed on, it's the end of the salmon run and given how many they must eat per day, they will soon start to run out and if they don't make their way out of Dyes Inlet, they will be in a dangerous life or death situation.

But when Marisa unintentionally hurts the feelings of a classmate and his special needs younger brother, and her dad finally tells her what he knows about her mother's childhood, Marisa suddenly realizes how angry she has been and begins to see things differently.

As the whales remain in the inlet, they are surrounded by crowds of boats of all sizes containing whale watchers, upsetting the whales and making it more and more difficult for them to find their way out of the inlet, and worse, the watchers simply ignore pleas to turn off motors and back away.

By day 30, the orca's situation is critical. Is it already too late to save the this pod of whales that Marisa has become so attached to, an attachment that somehow has so much to do with her feelings about her mother?

I was really excited to read Chasing at the Surface.  I've always been fascinated by whales and whale behavior, although so sad when something goes wrong, as it seems to do more and more frequently.

But Sharon Mentyka has written a beautiful coming of age novel that explores the meaning of family, courage, and forgiveness, weaving these themes around a family of displaced orca whales mirroring the kind of displacement that Marisa feels now that she and her family also find themselves in unfamiliar waters.

Interestingly, I found that neither Marisa's or the whale's story overshadowed the other.  It helps that chapters concerning the whales are clearly indicated - Orca Day 1, Orca Day 2, etc., as are chapters relating to Marisa situation. And along the way, young readers will learn much about orca whales, their family structure, and their behavior, though without any of it feeling pedantic, as well as the importance of animal conservation.

I found Chasing at the Surface to be a multi-dimensional novel that explores the mystery of nature and what happens when people interfere with it, but it also looks at nature's ability to help humans heal their wounds.  Highly recommended.

Chasing at the Surface is based on an actual event in which a subpod of 19 whales swam into Dyes Inlet in 1997.  It is every bit as fascination to read as this novel is and you can find out much more about it at Dyes Inlet Orcas - Ten Years Later.

This book is recommended for readers age 9+
This book was sent to me by the publisher, WestWinds Press

Be sure to visit the other stops on the Chasing at the Surface Blog Tour

October 2, 2016        Interview          Girls Who Reads
October 3, 2016        Interview          Gidget Girls Reading
October 4, 2016        Review             The Book Faerie
October 5, 2016        Review             I Read Until Dawn
October 6, 2016        Review             Kitty Cat at the Library
October 7, 2016        Interview          Provato Events
October 9, 2016        Review             Randomly Reading
TBD                          Interview          ALSC Blog
October 14, 2016      Guest Posting   Kirby Larson's Blog