The Snail and the Whale

Product Information

And she gazed at the sky, the sea, the land, The waves and the caves and the golden sand, She gazed and gazed, amazed by it all, And she said to the whale, “I feel so small.”

The book won the Early Years award for the best pre-school book in 2004, the Blue Peter award for Best Book to Read Aloud, 2005, [2] and the Giverny award for Best Science Picture Book 2007. [3] Find out about snails, whales and other creatures shown in the book. Where do they live? What do they eat?

I also continued to write “grown-up” songs and perform them in folk clubs and on the radio, and have recently released two CDs of these songs. I really enjoy writing verse, even though it can be fiendishly difficult. I used to memorise poems as a child and it means a lot to me when parents tell me their child can recite one of my books. I studied Drama and French at Bristol University, where I met Malcolm, a guitar-playing medic to whom I’m now married.

This is the sky So vast and high Sometimes sunny and blue and warm, Sometimes filled with a thunderstorm, With zigzag lightning Flashing and frightening The tiny snail On the tail of the whale. My real breakthrough was THE GRUFFALO, again illustrated by Axel. We work separately - he’s in London and I’m in Glasgow - but he sends me letters with lovely funny pictures on the envelopes.Everyone, including the local firemen rushed to the beach and they all began spraying the whale to keep him cool while some of the children dug around him to provide water from under the sand. Then the tide came in and much to everyone's relief the whale, complete with snail on its tail, took to the water once more. On 6 November 2018, it was announced that BBC One and Magic Light Pictures would bring audiences The Snail and the Whale for Christmas 2019. The music is supplied by French composer and musician Rene Aubry, [4] and the animation was provided by Triggerfish Animation Studios. [5] The 26-minute production aired on BBC One at 2:30pm on 25 December 2019, [6] and again at 2:05pm on 1 January 2020. It was released on DVD on 10 February 2020 in the United Kingdom. Read this again (November 2019) as I can't resist the brilliant Donaldson/Scheffler combination. And it is just as good, if not better, than when I first read it.

But then came the day These are the speedboats, running a race, The whale lost his way . . . Zigging and zooming all over the place, Upsetting the whale with their earsplitting roar, Making him swim too close to the shore. Icebergs, fiery mountains and golden sands, caves beneath the crashing waves, and storm tossed seas are all part of the adventure. And then the whale gets lost and he ends up on the beach in trying to avoid speedboats. It looks like the end of the journey for the poor whale. There is a lot of rhyming in the story. Can you find the rhyming words? Can you find other words which rhyme with them? These are the caves Beneath the waves, Where stripy fish with featery fins And sharks with hideous toothy grins Swam round the whale And the snail on his tail. One of my television songs, A SQUASH AND A SQUEEZE, was made into a book in 1993, with illustrations by the wonderful Axel Scheffler. It was great to hold the book in my hand without it vanishing in the air the way the songs did. This prompted me to unearth some plays I’d written for a school reading group, and since then I’ve had 20 plays published. Most children love acting and it’s a tremendous way to improve their reading.Even though the snail is small, he helps to save the whale. Think about your abilities. Is there anything that you thought you couldn’t do, but you managed to when you tried? The human activity makes the humans swim too close to the shore. Can you find out when this might have happened to real whales in the past? Discuss what we might be able to do to stop it from happening again. Description: A half hour animated film for all the family based on the much-loved book written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler.

This is the tide coming into the bay, And these are the villagers shouting, “Hooray!” As the whale and the snail travel safely away . . . The audiobook with an accompanying audio cassette, is narrated by English voice actor Imelda Staunton, while the audiobook with an accompanying compact disc is narrated by Scottish voice actor David Tennant. Imagine that you had to write a newspaper report about the people (and the snail) who saved the whale. What would it say?

Look at one of the pictures, without the accompanying text. Can you write about that part of the creatures’ adventure? Could you think of words / phrases to describe what is happening in the illustration?