A young boy heard her call, rising from the river and echoing off the mountain. Neither his Mum nor his Dad heard it and Grandma said that ‘perhaps you were dreaming.’ But each morning he hears her call and hears her story. Sometimes it is joyful and sometimes immensely sad.
The mornings are cold and dark, but the boy knows she is getting closer, and he knows why she is calling. He rugs up and runs to the river’s edge to wait for her. And her story grows in the boy’s head it tells of fear and darkness and a longing to come home but she did not feel safe. She asks ‘Why did they hurt us? The boy is ashamed it was not him, but he still feels the shame, ‘Sorry’ he whispers. The whale turns and calls again but this time to her baby who she introduces to the gathering watchers on the shore. She and the baby are safe.
The illustrations are in watercolour paint, gouche, graphite, ink pencil and chinagraph pencil. This combination of mediums to create a feel of wind, water, and beach. The use of soft blue grey hues to tell the whale’s story provides an emotional tug. As the boy waits the colours brighten moving into rich blues and yellows as the day dawns and there is a growing sense of joy and hope.
In 2010, a southern right whale swam into the Derwent River in Tasmania and gave birth to a calf. This was the first birth in the river in almost 200 years. This event inspired Christina Booth to investigate, and she discovered that the river had been a whale nursery but the arrival of Europeans in the early 19th century has seen the introduction of whale hunting in and around the Southern Ocean. Southern right whales were considered the best whales to hunt as they floated when killed and had a high oil content and were hunted to near extinction. The last double page spread provides information about the story’s background and about southern right whales.
Christina Booth is a Tasmanian based author/illustrator. She grew up In Tasmania and has a great love and appreciation of the natural world there.
Picture Books for Older Readers
