Here Come the Humpbacks! by April Pulley Sayre
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
The move up and down the Atlantic just wasn't a gripping story, although it holds together well. From Sayre's acknowledgments section: "Special thanks to Dr Phillip Clapham, who was so generous with his knowledge--clarifying complexities, reviewing text, and sharing terrific stories." I wanted to hear some of these. Any one of Sayre's pages could have taken off into a unique narrative, but the plot points were set and the common challenges and difficulties of the trip were laid out in a clear order. This timeline was a decent organizing structure to keep the text together, but it was not unusual nor did it create an experience beyond what I can find on the internet. Again, wikipedia is a clear judgment point for all informational text going forward.
Functional, corresponding illustrations don't complement the narrative nor provide counterpoint, even though the style and compositions have some clear strength and potential. The charcoal & pencil drawings are unusual and Hogan knows what to do with these media.
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