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If you want to see a whale / Julie Fogliano ; Erin E. Stead.

By: Material type: TextTextPublication details: New York : Roaring Brook Press, 2013.Edition: 1st edISBN:
  • 9781596437319 (hardcover) :
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • [E] 23
Summary: Advises the reader about what to do, and not do, in order to successfully spot a whale, such as wrapping up in a not-too-cozy blanket, ignoring the roses, and especially, being patient.
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Holdings
Item type Current library Collection Shelving location Call number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Juvenile Book Phillipsburg Free Public Library Juvenile Easy Reader Juvenile Easy Reader J E FOG Available 36748002156075
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

If you want to see a whale, you will need to know what not to look at.

Pink roses, pelicans, possible pirates . . .

If you want to see a whale, you have to keep your eyes on the sea, and wait . . .

and wait . . . and wait . . .

In this quiet and beautiful picture book by Julie Fogliano and Erin E. Stead, the team that created the Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor book And Then It's Spring , a boy learns exactly what it takes to catch a glimpse of an elusive whale. This title has Common Core connections.

A Neal Porter Book

A Publishers Weekly Best Children's Book of 2013
A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2013

Advises the reader about what to do, and not do, in order to successfully spot a whale, such as wrapping up in a not-too-cozy blanket, ignoring the roses, and especially, being patient.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Fogliano and Stead team up again to examine the relationship between patience and reward, trading the gardening theme of And Then It's Spring for a maritime setting. The text resembles a series of brief poems, each beginning with the phrase of the title: "if you want to see a whale/ you will need a window/ and an ocean/ and time for waiting/ and time for looking/ and time for wondering 'is that a whale?' " Stead's pencil and woodblock prints-as delicate, understated, and imaginative as ever-take exciting creative license with Fogliano's expressive writing. When the author cautions against getting too comfortable ("because sleeping eyes can't watch for whales"), a redheaded boy-the one seeking the whale-is seen leaning over a yellow armchair, peering down into the pale green sea in which it bobs. Gentle irony courses through the story: when Fogliano warns against being sidetracked by fragrant wild roses or the possibility of pirates in the harbor, it's clear that those "distractions," while certainly different than the split-second magic of spotting a whale, are treasures in themselves. Ages 2-6. Illustrator's agent: Emily van Beek, Folio Literary Management. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

School Library Journal Review

PreS-Gr 2-A poetic text advises children what to do (and not do) if they want to see a whale, as the illustrations show a boy, a dog, and a bird trying out the actions suggested: ".if you want to see a whale,/you will need a not-so-comfy chair/and a not-so-cozy blanket/because sleeping eyes can't watch for whales." and ".if you want to see a whale/you shouldn't watch the clouds/...because if you start to look straight up/you might just miss a whale." An imaginative effort, the book uses linoleum printing techniques and pencil for the softly colored illustrations. It is also designed with a great deal of white space, which deftly evokes the mystery and vastness of the sea. A unique and lovely offering that will appeal to sensitive and patient children.-Judith Constantinides, formerly at East Baton Rouge Parish Main Library, LA (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

*Starred Review* In this gorgeous love song to the imagination, a little boy and his trusty basset hound want nothing more than to catch a glimpse of a whale. If you want to see a whale, there are certain things you'll need, like a window looking out on a vast ocean. You'll need plenty of patience, too: time for waiting / and time for looking / and time for wondering, 'is that a whale?''' You might be distracted by miraculous things along the way, like the sweet, fragrant smell of pink roses or pelicans perched on posts or an inchworm on a leaf. These are all wonderful things, but they are not a whale. But if you keep both eyes on the sea / and wait . . . / and wait . . . / and wait . . ., it just might happen. The creators of And Then It's Spring (2012) return with this quiet, contemplative, beautiful poem about patience and dreams and about enjoying the journey. The illustrations open up from a boy sitting before a window into the world of his own imagination, where whale-shaped clouds swirl overhead and an armchair becomes a boat. Sea-foam colors, set off on white backgrounds, saturate the pages; the blues and greens are textured, giving the sea a palpability and immediacy. And when that whale emerges at the very end, it's breathtaking, and most certainly worth the wait. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Stead took home the Caldecott for A Sick Day for Amos McGee in 2011, while Fogliano and Stead's first outing, And Then It's Spring, received five starred reviews. Fans will be waiting.--Kelley, Ann Copyright 2010 Booklist

Horn Book Review

The same pair that brought us And Then It's Spring (rev. 1/12) returns with a book that has a similar overall feel but a completely different story. Once again the protagonist is a small boy with a whole lot of patience. But where the earlier book dealt with the facts of nature, this one takes on the possibility of imagination. "If you want to see a whale / you will need a window," it begins. A window? Well, of course you do, if you're a kid in a landlocked house with an armchair for a ship. Fogliano's text cleverly tells us all the things we should ignore -- a pirate ship, a pelican, a caterpillar -- as we focus our vision on the longed-for whale. Stead's illustrations seem, at first, to offer a literal interpretation of the words, but on second glance we see that it's more complicated than that. A folded paper hat becomes a distant ship, a yellow armchair turns into a yellow boat, roses on the living room wallpaper are suddenly roses in a garden, and the big green rug becomes...Wait, is it a rug or an ocean? (The genius of Stead's art is that it leaves space for the viewer's imagination to interpret the pictures.) And then there's a whale, stretched across the width of the last double-page spread, just under the surface of the water where the boy is watching and waiting. It ends exactly as we imagined it would. kathleen t. horning (c) Copyright 2013. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Book Review

Fogliano and Stead (And Then It's Spring, 2012) produce another tender, timid story about a boy, his animal friends (a basset hound and a bird) and practicing patience. Whale watching requires lots of resolve to avoid distractions like birds, roses, pirate ships, clouds, pelicans and so on. Fogliano's exhaustive accounting of what not to notice artfully communicates the impossibility of unflagging focus. Her skeined advice unreels in a vivid, looping poem, while Stead's soft, accompanying artwork settles into subdued, simple compositions. Linoleum printing offers oceanic, undulating blues and greens, while pencil drawings bring the redheaded boy's freckles and his hound's drooping skin into focus. Stunning specificity surfaces in the poem's off-kilter phrasing (an inchworm's "just nibble scoot" across a leaf). The drifting verse floats and coalesces like the clouds that threaten to divert the boy from whale watching. When read aloud, it charms like an incantation. The poem's unresolved ellipses at the conclusion suggest an unending whale hunt, but Stead's final two images silently deliver what we've been waiting for. The whale, huge and hidden, floats beneath the unknowing child's tiny vessel and then twists its mass, pulling its head completely out of the water. The boy, his dog and bird rear back in wonder; readers will gape at the two enormous, whale-sized talents at work in this transfixing picture book. (Picture book. 2-6)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
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