Rating: Needs Parent Supervision

Reading Level: Early Elementary (as a read aloud), Mid Elementary

A family helps a lot baby whale find it’s mom.

Possible Concerns:

  • Luck. “This day, though, would be a lucky one. This day would have an adventure.” (p. 14, end of Chapter 1.)
  • Lying. A mouse pretty much promises he’ll help the whale find it’s mom, saying he’s an expert at finding lost mothers. This is tricky because he’s an orphan who never found his mom. I appreciate that he is resolute that he will help the baby whale, but he isn’t speaking the truth with his decorations. (Chapter 2)

Things I liked:

  • Teamwork. The team doesn’t abandon bird when he’s tired after helping them find the whale mother.
  • Helping those in need. The lighthouse family rallies around helping the whale find it’s mother.

If I was reading out loud to my kids, I’d skip the line about today being lucky near the end of Chapter 1. As for my other concern, it might be a good conversation about speaking truth. You could pause and ask your kids, what is something the mouse could have said that would have been truthful but still helpful, without lying?

See also The Storm, from the same series.