WHALE

Another unabashedly oddball tale from the author of Nutmeg (2006). Waking after a nighttime storm to find a huge whale stranded atop his seaside town, young Joe resists suggestions—including one from the despairing whale itself—to make fish soup, and asks for help from higher authorities. On the advice of the Innumerable Stars, the townsfolk sing a rain song that works well enough to float the whale free—whereupon it returns the favor by drinking up the flood, then sending hordes of sea creatures ashore to rebuild the town and coat it with sparkling shells. Covered in calligraphic curlicues, the massive blue whale makes a dominant, and appropriately mystical, central image in the painted illustrations. A good choice for readers in search of stories about compassion rewarded or, like Lynda Gene Rymond’s Village of the Basketeers (2005), illus by Nicoletta Ceccoli, of young people rescuing communities threatened by unusual natural disasters. (Picture book. 7-9)