Peg and the Whale - Hardcover

Oppel, Kenneth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0689824238 ISBN 13: 9780689824234

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, 2000

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

Kenneth Oppel writes: "I was living in Newfoundland when I had the idea for Peg and the Whale; I've always been drawn to the sea: I love the ocean, and boats, nautical lore, and seafaring tales. And now that I was living in one of the most famous fishing regions of the world, I decided to try my hand at a nautical tale of my own. I took my inspiration for Peg from the old sea shanty 'Jack Was Every Inch a Sailor' and the Old Testament story of Jonah and the whale. Eventually I realized my character would be a girl, not a boy, and she would be the kind of kid who's never fazed for a moment; for Peg, everything's a plus, and there's no defeating her."

Kenneth Oppel is the award-winning author of a number of picture books and novels, including Sunwing and Silverwing, the latter of which was voted Book of the Year for Children by the Canadian Library Association. He lives in Toronto with his wife and two children.

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 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 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0689824238
• ISBN 13: 9780689824234
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 40
• Illustrator: Widener Terry