Peg and the Whale ANNOTATION
Peg, a big strapping seven-year-old lass who has caught everything else in the sea, joins the crew of the whaling ship Viper and sets out to catch herself a whale.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Peg was born upon the bright blue sea.
A big, strapping lass, she isn't one to do things in half measures. Anything she turns her hand to, she's good at. But she wants more than that. She wants big, she wants better, she wants best. She wants to be the world's best fisherman....
Now that Peg's pushing seven, she figures it's high time she caught herself a whale. So she packs up her fishing rod and signs on with the whaling ship Viper. Peg is ready to catch a whale. But is the whale ready for Peg?
In this humorous nautical tall tale, Kenneth Oppel and Terry Widener have created a feisty, independent child hero for the ages.
FROM THE CRITICS
Children's Literature - Children's Literture
In this rollicking tall tale of an indomitable lass on the bright blue sea, Peg wants to be "best." Having caught every other fish imaginable, she sets her sights on a whale, and signs onto a whaling ship despite the mean-looking crew. She actually hooks a whale, but ends up inside him. After a series of zany adventures inside and out, she manages to return to her mother and father's ship. But she is soon off again, to be the best at some new venture. She's quite a gal. Widener's mostly double-page paintings are as boldly conceived as the yarn itself. The cartoon-y characters are rounded like animated dolls; the oceans are overlapping panels of textured blue. The scenes inside the whale make an interesting comparison with those in Disney's Pinocchio, but the emphasis here is always about the unwavering heroics of this brash, slicker-clad redhead. 2000, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, Ages 5 to 8, $16.95. Reviewer: Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz
School Library Journal
K-Gr 3-Peg was born on her parents' fishing boat and grew up hauling sheets, pulling lines, and gutting fish. Now that she is almost seven and has already caught just about everything that lives in the sea, she decides to set her sights a bit higher and signs onto a whaling ship. A few days later, she hooks her prey, but the jealous first mate cuts the rope holding her to the mast and she is taken for a ride by the angry creature. Peg is never fazed, however, and as she flies through the air behind the huge animal, she thinks, "Just as well-That old ship was only slowing me down." The whale swallows her whole and Peg makes herself at home in its stomach, using driftwood to build a ladder to its blowhole. When she finally returns home, she is ready for a new kind of challenge-mountain climbing. This outrageous story never misses a beat, and the feisty, redheaded Peg is in a league with other modern tall-tale heroines such as Anne Isaacs's Swamp Angel (Dutton, 1994) and the star of Diane Stanley's Saving Sweetness (Putnam, 1996). Done in acrylic on paper, Widener's paintings have a bright quality and bits of exaggerated humor that suit the larger-than-life tale. A whale of an adventure story with a thoroughly likable heroine.-Kathleen Kelly MacMillan, Carroll County Public Library, Eldersburg, MD Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Pushing seven and eager to make something of herself, a strapping young salt leaves her parents' fishing boat to sign on with a disreputable crew of whale hunters. Hooking a huge sperm whale, Peg ties herself to the mast for a wild "Nantucket Sleigh Ride," until a rival treacherously cuts her free and inside the monster she goes. Undaunted, she sets up housekeeping in the whale's stomach, climbing up to perch in the blowhole when her blubbery vessel surfaces. Red-haired and rosy-cheeked, Peg exudes self-confidence in Widener's richly colored acrylics—and is that a twinkle of amusement in the immense, dark-gray cetacean's eye? After a tour of the frozen North, Peg steers her finny friend homeward for a joyful (but temporary, as there are still worlds to conquer) family reunion. Fans of Edward C. Day's John Tabor's Ride (1989), or Alexis O'Neill's Loud Emily (1998), will delight in this new nautical yarn. (Picture book. 6-8)
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