Granny's Clan: A Tale of Wild Orcas by Sally Hodson is based on actual orca, or killer whale, research. The book takes readers on a real-life adventure as it combines science with a story of family, friendship, and love among a wild orca clan.
Ethan and I sat down to read this one night and ended up spending over an hour pouring over every page, talking about orcas, and watching the videos from The Center for Whale Research. I couldn't get over how fascinated Ethan was to learn about the orcas. He was enthralled by the videos, and eager to re-read the book after watching them so he could point out some of the things he'd learned along the way.
The illustrations, done by Ann Jones, are just beautiful. She really captures the orcas in a way that reminds me a bit of a family album, lovingly created with pastels. The prose itself has a sort of lyrical rhythm to it without being too sing-songy or rhyming.
It really is such a wonderful book and one I highly recommend for children.. It would make a beautiful gift, especially with one of the lovely bookmarks you can print out.
One of the things I adore about books from Dawn Publications, is all of the Downloadable Activity resources that they make available on their website. This makes it so easy for teachers, homeschoolers, and parents alike to take full advantage of the book as a teaching tool. In fact, this book has a 58-page activity guide with enough curriculum to fill a whole unit on orcas!
Dr. Sally Hodson loves to tell stories and hopes hopes to inspire people to care for our planet and the animals who share it. She earned her doctoral degree at the University of Colorado, with a focus on environmental education, ecology and animal behavior. Sally is an educator through and through having taught elementary, secondary and special needs students, as well as teachers. She also helps to develop curriculum. As the Executive Director at The Whale Museum, she helped coordinate the successful rescue and release of Springer, a wild orphaned orca. Sally lives on a Pacific Northwest island among cedar forests, bald eagles, and the orcas of Granny’s clan. To find lots more about orcas, see her website www.sallyhodson.com.Book-Tastic Links!
Disclosure: I received this book to review, but all opinions and thoughts are my own (and Ethan's!)
This looks like a pretty cool book!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a book with high educational value and done in such a way that children (like your son) are totally excited by it. We are lucky enough to be on the coast where we can see the orcas. It's quite something!
ReplyDeleteI just love orcas! Thank you for doing a book for kids about these majestic creatures! Thank you also for linking in to the Kid Lit Blog Hop! Have a whale of a day!
ReplyDeletethis is just such an amazing book - and the activities are awesome. i hope you get a chance to check out the videos and activities, too :)
DeleteThe fact that it had you and Ethan enthralled for an hour gives this book a huge Wow factor. Thanks for sharing with us again on the Kid Lit Blog Hop. Cheers Julie Grasso
DeleteThere's something about discovering what swims in the depth of the ocean that fascinates kids and grown-ups alike. It's amazing the diversity of animals and plants in the ocean and they discover new things all the time. Thanks for linking into the Kid Lit Blog Hop. :)
ReplyDeleteWow, Ang, I love how much kids can learn from books while having so much fun! Thanks for sharing this book success story with us :) Thanks for yet again co-hostessing with us!
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