I loved reading this book for several reasons. Number one being, my perception on what the book was going to be about turn out to be far different, in a good way. At first, I thought the book to be about the relationship between a mother whale and her baby. However, as I read the illustrations with limited text, I soon realized it contained a far deeper meaning. The second reason why I loved this book is that it pulled on my heart strings hard as I began to realize the deeper meaning of the book: the manner in which human beings manipulated the use of whales in their own benefit. I knew that whale oil was used for candles and lubrication, but this book made me far more aware of the many uses a whale was hunted for. It was astonishing the illustrations depicted,and explicitly, the manner in which the human selfishness evolved during the World Wars. The uses for this book could extended from social studies, environmental awareness/preservation, sociology, history, and art. The ages I would use this for would be from 2nd grade up to middle school. This book brought forth emotions I did not expect to be evoked due to the strong use of soft, fluid imagery to sharp, collages paper. ( )