Life after Whale by Lynn Brunelle illustrated by Jason Chin

This book opens with a graceful Blue Whale making a journey from the southern oceans to the warmer waters of the tropics ...

"but today something is different. Her heart is slowing down. It is wearing out. It is pumping less and less oxygen to her lungs, brain, and other internal organs. This year she will not make it to the feeding waters in the north. Her vision blurs and darkens. Her breathing slows. Her awareness fades. Her heart quiets and finally stops. This year, this day, this moment, after ninety years of life, as all her living things must do at some point ... she dies."

This is not the end though. Her death creates a whole new ecosystem.

"Her body will provide shelter and food for millions of creatures for more than a hundred years. A whole new world will arise. Scientists call this whale fall."

Go back and think about the title - yes there is life after the death of the whale.

Talking about the life cycle of living things is always a topic in a Primary School or Elementary School syllabus. Life after Whale is a perfect book for this topic. I am going to say that again - Life after Whale is a perfect book and it is one that you really do need in your school library.

Here are some of my reading discoveries from this splendid book:

• The layers of wax in the ear canal of the whale can show her life journey.
• Her body will take over one month to sink to the bottom of the ocean.
• She lands on 'marine snow' which is microscopic bits of dead animals and plants.
• There are four phases of a whale fall ecosystem - different animals feed on different parts of the whale and the cycle is completed when the krill we meet at the beginning of the book is part of the cycle again at the end.
• Even after 150 years the bones are still providing food for marine creatures.

Here are some activity pages from the US Publisher Holiday House. This video explains a whale fall. 

Brunelle’s prose is both lucid and poetic, while Caldecott-winning illustrator Chin depicts all of these changes in precise but lyrical ways, beginning with views of the living whale arcing majestically through sunlit waters; the artist goes on to show the body resting on the dark, mysterious seafloor as its bones are exposed and scattered by busy hordes of feeders both large and microscopic. ... Grand and engrossing. Kirkus Star review

Chin’s iridescent and highly detailed images are the perfect counterpoint to the absorbing text. This book is ideal for young readers who love simple, clear facts about animals or for older readers who will find the decomposition process fascinating. Educators will also appreciate the clear organization and descriptive writing style. SLJ

As a ninety-year-old blue whale dies, one story ends and another begins. Her body provides food for other creatures before it gradually descends to the depths of the ocean floor. But it doesn’t stop there: her body will sustain life of one kind or another for the next few hundred years. Small marine animals, from fish to crabs to octopuses, pick the skeleton bare before another wave of animals moves in. Eventually, rich nutrients seep into the water, and that water is carried to the surface, where it nourishes krill, the major food source for blue whales. Horn Book

We have a new Science and Technology Syllabus K-6 coming out next year. Here are a few quotes from that document:

Stage 2 (Grades 3 and 4) Students compare living things and identify the life cycles which support the survival of plant and animal species. 

Stage 2 (Grades 3 and 4) What are the similarities and differences between the life cycles of living things?

Life cycles of living things

Inquiry question: What are the similarities and differences between the life cycles of living things?

Students:

• identify that living things have life cycles 

• conduct an investigation into the life cycle of plants and/or animals 

Content Strand Summaries: Living World: The Living World strand explores living things and their needs. The key concepts developed within this strand are: living things have similar characteristics; are interdependent and interact with each other and their environment; living things and their features are related to the environments in which they live. Through this strand, students explore life cycles, structural adaptations and behaviours of living things. These developmental features and characteristics aid survival in particular environments.

It is the end of the school year here in Australia but if you can add this book to your library wish list or better if you can purchase it for your collection I suggest acting quickly. This book retails for AUS$35 but I found one online seller with copies for just AUS$28.

Jason Chin is the illustrator of Watercress which won the Caldecott Medal. I was lucky to read this book in a library last year and ever since I have hunted high and low so I could read it again - I was way too rushed last year. Alas this book is very expensive here in Australia and it is only available in a limited number of local and tertiary libraries.

The Line Tender by Kate Allen illustrated by Xingye Jin

Rich, complex, and confidently voiced.

Lucy's mum was a marine biologist. Lucy is just seven her mum dies suddenly. Move forward five years. Lucy does think about her mum but her grief is no longer raw although her dad is still struggling. Fred lives next door and he and Lucy are the very best of friends.  It is the summer and Fred has signed up for a project. Fred has a science brain and he loves to research and write about the natural world. Lucy has a talent for drawing. The friends plan to make a field guide of all the marine animals in their seaside town. A local fisherman called Sookie has hooked a huge shark so the pair of friends head down to the harbour to investigate. Lucy and Fred find some research papers written by Lucy's mum which show she had planned to investigate the relationship between the increasing numbers of seals in the area and the rise of the shark population. 

It looks like it will be a perfect summer then tragedy strikes and Lucy is left on her own to discover things about her mum, her dad, the importance of research into sharks, her beautiful friend Fred and of course herself.

"I'd always suspected that I was Fred's favorite person in the whole world. And he was mine. But neither of us had ever said that out loud. Not to each other."

I am not going to explain the title because it will give too much away except to give you a simple definition of the literal meaning. 

Definition of Line Tender: The tender is the surface member of the diving team who works closely with the diver on the bottom. At the start of a dive, the tender checks the diver's equipment and topside air supply for proper operation and dresses the diver.

Now look very closely at the cover.  It is filled with sharks of all sizes and varieties.

Read this book to find out why I want to go out and buy heaps of postcards. I loved this aspect of the story. We never see the pictures on the postcards - only the messages but here is one of the images. I wanted to share this because I love loons! This has no connection with the story but if you are in Australia, like me, you may not be familiar with the loon.

The Line Tender has been on my wish list for more than a year. I've had a long wait for the arrival of the paperback edition. Just to make this clearer, in Australia the hardcover edition was approx $30 and the paperback $16.  

When Colby Sharp talks about books I listen!  He has impeccable taste and he keeps me up to date with new US releases. Talking about The Line Tender he says: "You are so happy as a reader but then you are just floored and crushed." "I don't think this is a book you will ever forget."

You can read Chapter Four (a very significant chapter) on the Penguin Random House web site. Here is an audio sample from Chapter one. Things to notice with this book. Each chapter begins with a sketch (by Lucy) of a shark; the dedication is to Rachel Carson "there is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature - the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter."

Look at all these accolades:

• A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2019
• A School Library Journal Best Book of 2019
• A Kirkus Best Book of 2019
• A Shelf Awareness Best Book of 2019
• A Book Page Best Book of 2019

If you need more plot details click these reviews:

Elizabeth Bird School Library Journal

Deborah Stevenson in The Bulletin of the Center for Children's books

A Book and a Hug

Spoiler alert - this is a very sad book. If you have read A Bridge to Terabithia; A Taste of Blueberries; Bird by Crystal Chan; or The thing about Jellyfish you will have some sense of the level of grief you may experience reading this book.

Across the risen sea by Bren MacDibble

Bren MacDibble takes us once again into the dystopian world of the future. This time the land is covered in water and small groups of people cling to life on tiny islands. Each island has it's own laws and rituals but there is room for some sharing between the communities and debris washed up from all the destroyed cities is now scavenged and adapted for use as shelters. Life feels difficult at times but the people have manged to make comfortable dwellings and they have access to plenty of fish. There is danger though - violent unpredictable storms, dangerous crocodiles, sickness and perhaps the threat of invasion or war.

As this story opens some strangers arrive at Cottage Hill - three tall people who speak a strange language. They are wearing shiny headbands and their boat has a sun image on the prow. It is clear they are powerful, wealthy and have come from a distant place known as Valley of the Sun. The three people, two sisters and a brother, climb the hill above the little island settlement and begin to cut down trees. Over the coming days they erect a tall pole and place two circles of logs around it. They hoist a metal box onto the top of the middle pole and attach wires which stretch down to the ground where they are buried under the inner circle of logs. After their task is completed the three strangers sail away. They refuse to answer any questions.

Old Marta, the leader of their island, knows all of this has something to do with 'teknology' but exactly why this strange contraption has been placed on their island is a mystery.  Neoma and her friend Jag are told to go and sketch the box so Marta can take a drawing to show the inhabitants of other near-by islands in the hope they may know what all this means. Neoma is a curious and fearless girl. She digs into the dirt below the box, even though they have been told by the strangers not to touch any part of this installation. She receives a powerful electric shock and has to run quickly into the sea to put out the flames burning her skin and hair.

Jag and Neoma have managed to complete a drawing of the tower and box so Marta takes Neoma to visit the nearby islands. There is something odd about the island of Jacob's Reach. It is clear their leaders are not telling the truth and there must be some reason why there are no children around.

I think my favourite scene comes next when Neoma, her Ma and Jag head off to Silver Water in their makeshift catamaran Licorice Stix. Silver Water is a high rise building which is now flooded. The kids climb up the stairs until they reach a former restaurant - well Neoma doesn't know it is a restaurant because she has never seen a place like this. No one has found this so it has not been looted and the kitchen is filled with food. It has been eleven years since the flood but the canned food is still okay so Neoma fills her sack. She and Jag then have to rush away because a very dangerous storm is approaching. I held my breath as Neoma's is forced to leap into the sea after tossing her salvage over the balcony rails.

On their way back, as the wild weather and water rages around them, they see a boat. It is the one that visited their island earlier - the one with the strangers from Valley of the Sun. The two women are in the boat. One is dead and one is badly hurt. What has happened? Are Neoma and her community now in danger? The people from Valley of the Sun will be back and they will want answers but no one has anticipated they will also want a payment and this payment comes in the form of a person. Jag is captured and taken prisoner and Neoma thinks this is all her fault and so it is up to her to rescue her friend and hopefully solve all the mysteries - the dead woman, the island of secrets, and most importantly to discover the purpose of device beaming a red light from the top of their island.

Bren MacDibble is a master storyteller. She gives her reader fragments of information that signpost past events and give a sense of place and of climate change:

"Marta was a young woman in the before-times. Before the risen sea drove everyone to the hills. ... She says when she was older she visited the great walled city of Sydney after most of it moved to New Armidale. She remembers when clouds were just white, she says the green is bacteria and it's the way the earth tries to make things right and clean ... "

"The surf coast was where the rich people lived, pretending it was safe from the flooding that was washing out the poorer coastal towns and making salty swamps of farmland. But Cyclone Summer sent six cyclones nose to tail and destroyed it. Survivors moved inland to a mountain range same as the poor people. But the sea rose so quick they din't get to take everything they owned."

My advance reader copy (thanks to Beachside Bookshop) of Across the risen sea has 270 pages but so much is contained within this thrilling story. I would summarise the plot into three 'acts'.

ACT 1. Installation of the 'teknology' on the island and the subsequent mystery of Jacob's Reach which is somehow linked to the death of the woman from Valley of the Sun. Jag is kidnapped.
ACT 2. The rescue of Jag which involves a dangerous pirate woman, a visit to the famed Valley of the Sun (this place is utterly amazing) and the making of a new friend.
ACT 3. The full truth is revealed.

I am going to make a prediction that Across the risen sea will be short listed by the CBCA for their 2021 awards. AND even though it is only June (this book is due for publication in August) I am going to predict Across the risen sea will be among the winners next year.  YES it is that good! This is a thrilling story, a mystery, a story of heroism, pirates, survival and so much more. I read it all in nearly one sitting and I was on the edge of my seat through the whole amazing 'voyage'.

In her letter to the reader Bren MacDibble says:

"I've let adventure lead me on a wild ride with this one. There's sinkholes, crocodiles, sharks, pirates, floating cities, and floating farms. I hope you and those you share books with will also enjoy the ride."

If you haven't discovered the powerful story telling of Bren MacDibble I suggest you RUSH out now and grab her earlier books:

How to Bee

The Dog Runner