The Whale

[Editor's Note: The following is a combined review with THE TURTLE.]--Rylant's Lighthouse family is "an unusual family, but a very happy one." Pandora the cat and Seabold the dog have adopted three little mice; all live together rescuing various creatures lost at sea. In THE TURTLE, the family assists Aurora, a sea turtle who's on her way to see the Northern Lights; in THE WHALE, they help reunite a mother and baby beluga whale. Mark Nelson's voice has an old-fashioned, endearing quality that serves Rylant's material well, and his characters are remarkably well-imagined and easy to keep straight, whether he's voicing a family member or a guest visitor. Nelson's droll vocal sketches beautifully convey the sweetness of Rylant's odd but cozy world. J.C.G. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine

September 1, 2003
In The Whale, the second book in the Lighthouse Family series by Cynthia Rylant, with sepia-toned graphite illustrations by Preston McDaniels, the young mice Whistler and Lila come across a baby beluga whale who has lost his mother. They enlist the help of a cranky old cormorant named Huck to find the whale's mother in this sequel to The Storm, which PW called "a sweet, sea-inspired tale... will keep readers turning the pages."