The Snail and the Whale Paperback – Picture Book, April 6, 2006

This is just adorable! Love reading this book to my 4 year old. Now looking for more books from this author/illustrator duo!

Thin, but large book in comparison to other toddler books. My 2 yr old loves it. Fun illustrations, entertaining story.

This is a very entertaining story with a good rhyme scheme. My grandson (6 yrs.) wanted it for home because he loved it at school

Cute book! My 5 y/o grandson loves Julia’s Donaldson’s stories and Axel Sheffler illustrations.

It’s a cute story

The media could not be loaded. My kids are big Julia Donaldson fans. This story has her signature wit, humor, and rhyming, plus fun, quirky illustrations. It's a cute story, but out of all the Julia Donaldson books we own (The Gruffalo, Where's My Mom?, and Room On The Broom), this was least captivating for my kids. I would recommend those I listed before this one, but still cute!**Video is long because it shows the entire book. Drives me nuts to have to purchase childrens books without a quick view of the whole story to see if they'd actually enjoy it!

I have been following the works of Julia Donaldson for the last three years. My son was born in the UK where we lived until last year and she is a very popular author with many best selling children's books. My favorites, so far, are sharing a shell, what the lady bird heard, Taby McTat as well as her most famous work: The Gruffalo. Not all her books are easy to find through US based vendors but somehow this one was an exception. I could get it fast through amazon without having to wait an overseas shipment from the UK.This book has two main characters: A snail with an adventurous soul who wants to go to places beyond the horizons and explore the world. That character points out the reader that our imagination can go far beyond our capabilities and a way make it happen can be found like in this case. Snail manages to write a note ' I want to see the world' on the rock it lives on and a whale somehow notices this and offers a ride on the tail. They visit exotic places as see different animals and lands until one day the whale gets lost and dragged to the shore. Being unable to turn back, his time starts running low since whales can not survive long on the shore.There comes the help from the little passenger. It crawls to the local school to seek for help and manages to write a message on the blackboard : 'save the whale'. The students and the teachers read it and notify the local rescue team who come and save the whale by dragging him back to the sea. No matter how small you are, you can always be of help if you really want is the second take home message from this small child book.The story ends in a happy way in which they both find their way back home. After that colorful experience whale keeps offering this ride to other snail inhabitants of the rock as a gratitude for the help he received from the little one.A pleasant read for a child with many attractive pictures and good easy to understand text. Yet again a good read for an adult too.

Compared to the other Gruffalo series books, I can see why there are differing opinions. However, it’s more of a life lesson in that even the smallest of creatures can have the biggest impact by using their voice or shall I say in this case, snail trailI enjoyed the book and purchased as a part of a baby shower gift bag.