Whole Whale

No one likes to be left out! Laugh along with the BIG book that fosters both kindness and mathematics. Young readers will giggle with delight as one hundred unusual animals try to squeeze into the oversized pages of this raucous rhyming tale. “But can we fit a whole blue whale?” is repeated throughout, as more animals join the melange. The humorously explosive ending features an expansive double gatefold. Educational endnotes list the 100 animals in the book.

Lambda Literary Fellow Karen Yin is an author-illustrator living in Southern California. The founder of Conscious Style Guide, Karen embraces inclusiveness and making space for all. She is a proud member of the Authors Guild, the Dramatists Guild, and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Whole Whale is her debut picture book.

Nelleke Verhoeff started her career performing shows for children, but then discovered her passion for art. She has since illustrated several books and was a finalist in the Silent Book Contest at the 2018 Bologna Children’s Book Fair. Nelleke lives in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

“The artwork is cheerful and bright with high-contrast colors, depicting wonderfully unusual animals like rooks, rhinos, crabs, koalas, tapirs, skinks, and quails, all interacting with joy . . . But perhaps the truest charm of this book lies in its language, rich with assonance, alliteration, and internal and end rhymes and liltingly cadenced with read-aloud rhythm” – Booklist

“Yin debuts with a colorful reminder about inclusion . . . Recommended for early childhood collections, this brisk and funny rhyming story will be a hit at story times” – The School Library Journal