So large that its tail section alone dwarfs the giraffe and the elephant shown beside it, the blue whale gets an up-close look in this artfully composed study. Zoological facts are phrased to suit the book's inviting picture-book format. Such details as the fishy smell of the whale's breath and the deep-pitched hum it makes to communicate with other blue whales are expressed in large print and in smaller typeface simulating hand-printed anecdotes tucked alongside illustrations. Crosshatched pen-and-ink drawings, washed in the greens, blues, and salmon sands of the sea, engagingly show the blue whale in its arctic summer home, peer inside its mouth at its krill-sifting baleen plates, and observe a mother and newborn swimming together in the warm equatorial waters, where the whales spend the winter. The book will definitely satisfy youngsters' curiosity about the biggest creature that has ever lived on Earth! (Reviewed Sept. 1, 1997)

Zoologist Davies's brief overview offers young readers exactly what they want to know about this magnificent animal, and her judicious use of comparison makes the abstract more understandable. She provides a simple introduction to the whale's feeding habits, as well as its reproductive cycle and migratory patterns. Maland's cross-hatched pen-and-ink drawings rest on blue watercolor wash backgrounds. Ind.

Conversational text and soft, crosshatched pen-and-ink illustrations ebb and flow in a fluid look at the largest mammal ever to inhabit the earth. Invoking the senses, Davies describes the blue whale's physical attributes in irresistible, crystalline terms. Its skin is ``springy and smooth like a hard-boiled egg, and it's as slippery as wet soap.'' The enormity of the blue whale comes into focus in the illustrations that place it next to a giraffe and an elephant, bringing it into the everyday realm of children. The scale of this leviathan becomes even clearer when Davies notes that its eyes are the size of teacups and its ears are no larger than the end of a pencil. She covers its yearly migration, and its diet of 30 million tiny krill in just a day. Undulating bold text provides auxiliary facts that complement the main story. Effective use of shrinking and expanding typeface and the inclusion of two human observers accentuate the proportional vastness of both the creature and its ocean. This unassuming book is teeming with new discoveries upon each rereading. (index) (Picture book/nonfiction. 4-9)"