"The whale's eye, the size of a bicycle tyre, turned towards us. It looked like it was weeping."
"I was too mad to cry. Mad at the unforgiving ocean rushing away from the shore. Mad at our short arms and the whale's long body. Made that we didn't have a boat, a winch, long ropes to pull it into the sea. Mad at everything."
This is such a profound and brave book. Most books, in fact every book I have ever read, about stranded whales end with a successful rescue but not this one. The three children find a stranded whale on a beach in Maine (but really it could be anywhere). It is 1971 so they don't have mobile phone. One boy runs half a mile to alert the coast guard. A team of adults arrive but sadly they are unable to save this beautiful creature. Later someone comes to their home to present all three kids with a medal. But Sally does not want a medal - the whale died. She does not want a medal she wanted this amazing creature to live and to enjoy swimming in the depths of the ocean again. Her emotions are raw and honest and very very real.
I am so happy that my friend at Kinderbookswitheverything shared this book with me. She set out a big book display of books about whales a couple of weeks ago and we were searching for this book which I had not heard of but of course I do adore Jane Yolen. Fast forward one week and she had found The Stranded Whale and kindly saved it for me.
In this blog post Jane Yolen talks about her book. Mel Cataldo talks about her processes. In 2016 The Stranded Whale won the Green Earth Book Award. I do need to tell you The Stranded Whale (published in 2015) may be difficult to purchase.
A moving, memorable addition to the nature collection. Kirkus
A brave book that does not shy away from grief or wonder. Waking Brain Cells
Take a look at this comprehensive Pinterest collection of Whale books. Here are some I have mentioned on this blog. There are links to all of these and many others here:
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