Big Blue

Children's Literature

A little girl dreams of swimming with whales every night. She learns all she can about them, and gives a lesson on what she learns to the reader. This is a charming educational book with an endearing story about the fulfillment of her dreams. Lucky for her, the girl's mother works on a whale watching ship and she gets to swim with the whales. The text is fun and informative, and the illustrations are good, with lots of interest. They are, however, somewhat inconsistent in quality throughout the book. Nevertheless, this book belongs in every child's library. 2003, Charlesbridge Publishing Inc,
— Jennifer-Lynn Draper

School Library Journal

Gr 1-3-While it seems unlikely that a child could actually fulfill a dream of swimming in the ocean alongside a blue whale, this story is evidently based on an event that really did happen to the author's nine-year-old daughter. Kye narrates, telling readers that she knows "just about everything a kid can know about whales." She goes on to explain many facts about their size and bodies. Kye's mother facilitates her daughter's dream. "My mom- drives a whale-research boat in Alaska. She hangs out with marine biologists." Soon they are part of a small research trek to Baja, Mexico, where the dream is realized. "Time stops. This moment belongs to Big Blue and me. I twirl like a manta ray in her surge, dancing in the depths of her deep, blue sea." Watercolor and colored-pencil views covering the full spreads provide fine perspective in scenes of a whale skeleton suspended from a museum ceiling and children and whales swimming underwater. More adept at drawing landscapes and animals than humans, Barrow creates a good sense of place as she depicts the child at home, the trip by Jeep to the study camp in Mexico, and the undulating figure of the impressive whale. The possibility of an ordinary child living out such a grand dream makes for a nice adventure story, and the book adeptly blends considerable information about whales into the telling. Children will enjoy the package for personal reading, and it should find good use in classrooms as well.-Margaret Bush, Simmons College, Boston Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.