With its stunning watercolour illustrations, Ida and the Whale will take you on a journey into a dreamy world of a child’s imagination.
Ida is a quiet and curious child. She often sits outside her birch tree house and wonders if there is anything beyond the sun, the moon and the stars. One night she dreams of a giant flying whale that invites her to go on a special adventure. Ida and the whale talk about many things, some ordinary, some special, and quickly become very good friends who are so comfortable with each other that they are not afraid ‘to share a silence’. After a violent storm, they get separated for a brief moment and Ida is engulfed in her loneliness (the illustrations render her emotions so beautifully, to the point of making the reader feel her despair). The whale comes back with a reassuring message of always being there for her.
Some readers might find the story a bit on the short side and not entirely logical, but, if you bear in mind that this is a dream, Ida’s journey becomes easier to understand.’ Sometimes you can only understand others if you stand on your head yourself’.
I think this is not a read aloud but more of a read-along-with-me book, as the child needs to see the pictures which make the book so special.
Thank you NetGalley and North South Books for the ARC provided in exchange for an honest opinion.
Title: Ida and the Whale
Authors: Rebecca Gugger(story), Simon Roethlisberger (illustrations)
Published by: North South Books
Published on: 2nd of April 2019
ISBN: 0735843414 (ISBN13: 9780735843417)
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