A boy wearing a red paper crown sits on his bed reading a book about whales. Actually, based on the jacket art, he is reading this book about whales. While he becomes engrossed in it, the illustrations follow his mental pictures as his imagination takes flight. For example, when it compares the weight of a blue whale to a heap of 55 hippopotami, he envisions himself hopping up the heap and eating an apple at the top. The red-crowned boy adds a unifying character to the sometimes fanciful visual elements of this mostly factual presentation. In a book with so little space devoted to text, it's puzzling that Desmond includes an explanation of estimating a whale's age by counting the bands of wax in its earplugs, especially since she also notes that the technique was abandoned as unethical and unreliable. There's a nice childlike sensibility to the art, which combines printed elements with cut paper, crayons, and paints. Not an essential purchase, but a good addition to science collections.--Phelan, Carolyn Copyright 2010 Booklist

With playful observations and comparisons, Desmond presents a fount of information about "the largest living creature on our planet."Its "heart is as big as a small car," its average weight of 160 tons is "about the same as a heap of 55 hippopotami," and because the krill it eats "are bright orange, so too is a whale's poo." Desmond doesn't depict the poo but she does show the krill, along with a pile of hippos, the 50 ethnically diverse people who could fit into a blue whale's mouth, 50 jugs of milk that represent a whale calf's daily consumption, and other vivid infographics. These illustrations are all done in a loose cartoon style with frequent views of huge, gracefully bowed cetaceans filtered through the imagination of a capering Caucasian lad capped with a red crown and clutching this very volume. The slightly elliptical narrative leaves actual young readers who might be hazy on what "frequency of their sound" means or just why capturing whales for scientific study is "unethical" to wonder. That opening reference to "largest living creature" may cause confusion too, as blue whales are the biggest animals but not the planet's biggest living organisms (an honor that belongs to a colossal fungus). Still, whale lovers will breach with happiness over this rich, artful mix of fact and frolic. (map) (Informational picture book. 6-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Writing in a voice that's both calming and direct, Desmond studies "the largest living creature on our planet," the blue whale. With a boy in a striped shirt and red crown as a guide, Desmond discusses the whale's size, how it eats, and its various capabilities, in sentences that seem destined to leave readers' jaws permanently dropped ("A blue whale's tongue weighs three tons, and its mouth is so big that 50 people can stand inside it"). Desmond's mixed-media images exude warmth and quiet humor: explaining how a whale feeds, an illustration of the animal features two arrows, one pointing out its expanded ventral pleats, the other noting "krill and water in here." A thorough, rewarding tribute to a majestic animal. Ages 4-8. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Both beautiful and instructive, the book illustrates a child's integration of information about this amazing mammal: fifty people could stand inside its mouth, "a single breath could inflate 2,000 balloons," and so on. More poetic than these examples might suggest, Desmond's words accompany art predominated by luscious blues that ranges in mood from whimsical to dreamlike to majestic. (c) Copyright 2015. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Gr 1-3-This delightful picture book provides a brief overview of these majestic creatures, from the perspective of a young boy absorbed in a volume about blue whales. (In a fun twist, the boy is revealed to be reading this very book.) Rich, warm, and imaginative, the illustrations support the clear, accessible text effectively, conveying the facts in a charming and accessible way that will easily resonate with kids. For instance, a page that states that blue whales weigh as much as 55 hippopotami is accompanied by an illustration of the boy sitting atop a pile of pachyderms, while a spread devoted to the vast quantities of milk whale calves drink features an image of 50 plastic milk jugs. Desmond includes endearing details as well, such as the boy's childlike pictures of these marine mammals, and her affection and admiration for the species is evident throughout, down to the last page, which depicts the boy asleep on a bedlike raft as a blue whale dives below the surface. VERDICT Budding cetologists will enjoy this lovingly crafted work.-Maggie Chase, Boise State University, ID © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.