The Snail and the Whale

I think we’ve a new favourite bedtime book in our house.

From the makers of The Gruffalo comes the quirky and superbly illustrated The Snail and the Whale, with the words (told through a poem) by Julia Donaldson, and the pictures by Axel Scheffler.

The story of a restless snail who runs away to sea on the tail of a grey-blue humpback whale. They visit far away places, before the whale gets distracted by the earsplitting roar of speedboats and gets beached in a bay. The snail crawls away to find rescuers, saves its life and they return to the snail’s home, where the snail’s mates all hitch a lift on the whale’s tail and sail off for more adventures.

Magical. It’s a two year old’s favourite … and enjoyable for the reader too.