The cover of this book is beautiful as are the pages throughout. This book is a story about Hope the whale and a little boy who spends his life watching out for her. I love the facts at the end aswell. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this beautiful book.

I am in love with the illustrations and the colour palette of this lovely book. This is highly informative and emotional at the same time. I can imagine children reading this and looking at the ocean searching for a whale. Lovely work!

A beautiful book perfect for bedtime. The story is very gentle and starts with Hope and her mummy and ends with Hope being a mummy. The illustrations are just beautiful. I also really enjoyed the page of whale facts at the end. The book led F and i to discuss why it’s important to look after the sea, and what we can do to help animals (reduce, reuse, recycle ♻️).

F said his favourite bit was the “beautiful drawing of mummy and Hope”.

Lovely, calming bedtime story, suitable for many ages.

3 stars ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

A remarkably magical book about the migration of whales. In particular a whale called Hope. The story is told through the eyes of a boy who watches the whales each year pass through his bay. The illustrations by Laura Chamberlain are sublime and there is incredible use of perspective in the images. One particular spread of note is where we see Hope swimming in the depths of the ocean and above is the dark base of the bottom of a boat bobbing on the surface. Certainly a book worth using when looking to explore perspectives. The illustrations give many exploration opportunities through maps and the main character choosing to draw what he sees.

It's a story book but I love how the end of the book tells the real story of Hope the Whale who is a whale skeleton that can be found in the Natural History Museum. This book is one that fires up your brain into wanting to discover even more and would be a particularly useful book to begin a topic on whales, oceans or migration. I certainly went straight off to the Natural History Museums website to discover more for myself.

Hope the blue whale Illustrated by Laura Chamberlain
Published by Macmillan Children’s Books

This beautifully illustrated picture book tells the story of Hope the blue whale through the eyes of a young boy. Inspired by the true story of Hope - one of the National History Museum famous exhibits, the epic migration journey they make every year from the icy north seas to the warm and welcoming tropics is retold. Alongside the storytelling lifecycle sits factual information that any curious reader will love to read and learn about. A must for any classroom book corner or library to inspire the next generation of scientists, conservationists and animal lovers.

Joanne Bardgett - Year 3 teacher
#Netgallery
#MacmillanKidsUK

My thanks to Macmillian Children’s Books for an advance digital edition via NetGalley of ‘Hope the Whale’ written by Macmillian Children’s Books in Association with the Natural History Museum, London. It is illustrated by Laura Chamberlain.

Hope the Blue Whale is one of the Natural History Museum’s most loved exhibits. This beautifully illustrated children’s book imagines her early life.

The story is told through the eyes of a young boy who lives by the ocean. He first sees the young blue whale swimming with her mother and names her Hope. Over the years he waits for her appearance during the whales’ annual migration. The illustrations include the young boy drawing pictures of the lives of the whales and a map of Hope’s migratory journey.

Following the story is a section with facts about the lives of blue whales and how Hope’s skeleton came to the Museum in the 1890s. It also briefly touches on the historic threats that brought the blue whale close to extinction, their subsequent recovery and now the new threats facing all sea life.

Laura Chamberlain illustrations are detailed and just exquisite. I was especially drawn to her use of the colour blue.

This picture book is intended for readers aged 3-6. I discovered my love of the ocean and marine life at around the age of 5 and can imagine how much this lovely book would have appealed.

Aside from parents, I expect that this book will be of interest to educators and librarians.

Strangely not crediting an author, this young reader is an attractive volume featuring the title character, from the point of view of someone who starts out as a young Irish lad witnessing her sail up and down the Irish coast on her migrations. Until she disappears, that is... This might remain only with a UK audience, as it claims to be linked to the life of the blue whale skeleton slung from the ceiling of the Natural History Museum in London. Either way, it's a pretty thing, and the text is quite calm and poetic, but perhaps not quite as fabulous as it could be. Similarly, the educational pull-out at the end is *just about* educational enough to deserve four stars. It's certainly a well-intentioned book that achieves pretty much what it needed to do.

Thankyou Macmillian Children's Books via Netgalley for allowing me to read this arc.

A truly sweet story of a boy who one day sees a mother and baby Whale swimming in the sea near his house. After that each year he goes out onto the cliff watching for them. He names the baby Hope.

Hopes story is based on a real Whale who's story you find out at the end of the book. Full of facts and information about whales along side this picture book story.

The colourful and wonderful pictures will certainly keep little ones hooked. There are also some little sketches at the end with labels to help parents teach their children about more creatures of the sea.

There is not too much writing that young ones will get bored but enough to keep them gripped along side the facts to teach them simple little bits about the biggest animal on earth.

The reason I only marked it 3* is I kind of wanted more from it. It was a cute story and I'm sure children will love it, but I feel the story could of had abit more to it.