The Storm Whale

Product Information

Noi is a little boy who lives by the sea with his fisherman-father and their six cats. Like in the touching Davey McGravy and My Father’s Arms Are a Boat— two of the most unusual and wonderful books that help children grieve— there is no mother in the picture. With great subtlety, Davies invites the reader to sense the presence of loss in the salty air of this small and sensitive child’s life. But Noi knows the secret companionship won’t last long and fears that his dad, upon coming home, would be furious about the whale in the bathroom. THIS WEEK author and illustrator, Benji Davies, creator of The Storm Whale and Grandad’s Island, launched his highly anticipated picture book, The Storm Whale in Winter.

Family is also at the heart of renowned novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s debut for children, Mama’s Sleeping Scarf (HarperCollins), with art by Joelle Avelino. Adichie became a mother in 2016 and has previously published a book of advice about how to raise a feminist daughter, Dear Ijeawele, Or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions. Her new picture book features a child called Chino, who enjoys playing with the hair scarf her Mama wears to bed while Mama goes to work and she stays home with her father and grandparents. At once a peek into a day in the life of a toddler, it is also a tender act of memorial, as Adichie writes under the pseudonym Nwa Grace-James – in honour of her deceased parents, James and Grace. The recurring pattern of Mama’s vivid green scarf, decorated with bright red and blue rings and beautifully reproduced on the endsheets, poignantly evokes a sense of the circle of life. Every day at dawn, Noi’s father departs for a long day of work on his fishing boat and doesn’t come home until dark. Noi paints pictures of the whale when he is gone. Can you paint your own pictures of whales and other ocean creatures? In the final scene, Noi and his father head to a picnic atop the cliff and the little boy’s wish comes true — he spots the baby animal alongside a grown whale in the ocean, waving a friendly tail. But the joyful moment is underpinned by subtle solemnity — one can’t help the pensive awareness that the little boy watching the two tails on the horizon, the larger most likely the whale-mother’s, is about to return to his own motherless home.

Teaching Ideas and Resources:

Noi lived with his fisherman father and their six cats in a small house by the sea. Every day his father would head out to sea on his boat, and the young boy would be on his own. Then one day, after a great storm, Noi found a baby whale washed up on shore. Determined to care for this stranded creature, Noi brought the whale home and put it in the bathtub. His understanding father, when he discovered the cetacean in the tub, realized that Noi had been lonely, but told him that they would have to return the whale to his ocean home all the same. Noi and his father live in a house by the sea, on a small island that doesn't seem to have many inhabitants. Because Noi's father works long days on his fishing boat and doesn't return until after dark, Noi is often on his own. One day, while exploring on the beach after a storm has hit, Noi finds a baby whale washed up on shore. With the affection and good intentions unique to a young child, Noi decides to take the whale home and look after him. Happy to have a friend who we can speak to but conscious he willl not be allowed to keep the whale, Noi tries to hide the whale from his father. But there is only so long you can keep a whale in the bathtub a secret. When his father finds the whale and explains that he must be returned to the sea, Noi learns a valuable lesson from the experience, but so does his father. I also loved the Frog And Toad books by Arnold Lobel, and when I was bit older The Animals of Farthing Wood by Colin Dann. My all time favourite is The Little Grey Men by BB.

One morning, after a violent storm sweeps the island, Noi goes down to the beach and spots something curious in the distance. Whales are sometimes kept in captivity. Plan and carry out a debate to discuss the different points of view surrounding this issue.We in this house love the sea and any stories about it, so this picture book caught our eye immediately. Write the conversation that Noi has with his father when the whale is discovered in the bath. Use direct speech and / or reported speech to record what is said.

The choice of the whale came seamlessly at the point of inspiration as I remember it. The idea that a whale could be in the bath was so misplaced as a concept that the story began forming around that starting point. I don’t remember a huge number of picture books from when I was little but Judith Kerr’s The Tiger Who Came to Tea was a big favourite. A thoughtful, emotive and heart-warming story that will capture your imagination and thaw even the bleakest of winters. We can’t think of a more perfect gift to find under the tree this Christmas.” The little boy manages tho keep the secret all through the evening, even sneaking a few fish from the dinner table to the tub, but the father eventually discovers his son’s betubbed friend — a moment dramatic not for its volatility but for the quiet wistfulness to which it awakens the fisherman. Later this year, Davies is returning to the world of The Storm Whale with a fourth book in the series, following on from 2016’s The Storm Whale in Winter and 2018’s Grandma Bird. He says of the inspiration behind it: “Whenever I’ve been working on one book, there are always other ideas that come along that don’t fit in with the pattern of the story that I’m writing, which then subconsciously sit there and kind of mix together. This one just felt like a natural continuation from the Grandma Bird story, where I had introduced her. I felt like it would be interesting for [the series’ main character] Noi to know more about his grandma. So that’s really where this story came from.”Look at the silhouette pictures on the inside covers. Could you create similar pictures based on whales or other animals?