Review: If You Want to See a Whale

If You Want to See a Whale by Julie Fogliano

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Hands down I would have picked this one for the Caldecott, out of all those on the lists. Fogliano and Stead were already on my radar for [b:And Then It's Spring|11891485|And Then It's Spring|Julie Fogliano|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1317794308s/11891485.jpg|16850550] from 2012.

Three points.
1. Most of the Caldecott hopefuls seem to know they are hopefuls (whether it was the author/illustrator, or just the editor), and so in one way or another it feels like they are trying to win an award and not necessarily to write a great picturebook. That's disappointing--but not so with this book! Lu and I are talking about what it would take to have a book award based on a 3-5 year timeline, so all the hoopla of the yearly award could be avoided. This is the kind of book that will be still good decades from now, and would have been good if it had been written decades ago.
2. This is (almost) the ONLY book in this year's award contenders where the pictures and words are in counterpoint relationship (see my 'counterpoint' shelf). Counterpoint is the more sophisticated and complex relationship of the three usually discussed (corresponding and complementary are the other two). Actually, only a few of this year's top books even had a complementary relationship--most were simply corresponding 1-1 mirrors between text and pictures. It was thrilling that the pictures of the child's actions clearly contradicted what the narrator (who felt like an adult to me) was saying in the words. This created a sense of irony, a pleasure of suspense in finding what would happen on the next page. The gentle palette of watercolors, and the calm dynamics of the composition made me believe the pictures were the thing to believe, and not the words. The decision to avoid punctuation except where necessary was handled very well.
3. The bulk of the pages of the book contradict the title, which I loved. That is, in a book about wanting to see a whale, nearly none of the book is about seeing one. In the end, Fogliano chose to be subtle, to be minimalist and let the pictures have the final 'say' instead of needing to tell us! Brilliant! The whole book is about the 'ifs' and about what one might do while NOT seeing whales. As an account of imagination, I haven't seen anything this good in a long time!

I'll have to see if over time I end up wanting to up the rating to 5 stars. But I reserve that for books where I simply must own a copy, because I use the library when and where I can (I already paid for it with my property taxes!)



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