Picture Book Review: The Fisherman & The Whale

This is a beautifully illustrated wordless picture book, meant to draw a thoughtfulness from the child reading it, allowing them to point out things in the story and tell it, essentially, to themselves. Madeline, however, insisted that I explain every page because she didn’t like the idea of explaining it herself. So. There’s that.

I have to laugh and roll my eyes a bit at that, but we all have our preferences, and apparently this child prefers to be told a story than to find it herself. I, on the other hand, love wordless stories for the artwork, which has to be amazing to carry the book. This is no exception. It’s so beautiful, and the use of the spread going vertically in some of the images is absolutely perfect. It’s a really lovely book. I love the message behind it. I’d actually love to see several books like this in a series featuring people helping animals in trouble in ways they are currently in trouble.