Rebecca Gugger

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thoughts and opinions are my own. Any quotes I use are from an unpublished copy and may not reflect the finished product.

The illustrations were lovely! I think Simon Röthlisberger did an amazing job bringing Rebecca Gugger's words to life. The story felt a little random and nonsensical, but there were a few memorable moments. The whale takes Ida on an incredible journey, and shares bits of wisdom along the way. "Some quicker, some slower, but all of us grow." I thought it was an enjoyable story that my children could understand and relate to. However, now my son wants a whale to show up at his window to take him on an adventure!

Originally posted at Do You Dog-ear? on January 4, 2019.… (plus d'informations)

Let's start with the absolute best aspect of this children's book, the illustrations. They are beautifully imagined, wonderfully created, and fantastically evocative. While the proverb teaches us not to judge a book by its cover, that is exactly what I did when requesting this title from the publisher through #NetGalley. The images alone are worth the time.

I struggled more with the text. I had trouble connecting the imaginative destinations with the overall story arc of "what lies beyond the sun, moon, and stars." I also struggled to connect to the fantasy world as a whale is flying presumably through the air and not water and yet, water plays a role in other places. My second time through the book, I was far more deliberate, pausing to take in the scenery and attempting to capture of the of the imaginative content that was perhaps in the images and not in the text. This was profitable in helping me leave behind the natural rules of our world for a truly fantasy world. This made it easier to see that Ida was simply on a journey to find those things that are beyond or behind the natural world.

Overall it simply felt like the images were created and then later an attempt was made to fit a text to the images which didn't quite reach simpatico. And yet the illustrations carry the day. 4 stars

#NetGalley #IdaAndTheWhale… (plus d'informations)