If you're of a sensitive disposition I'd definitely recommend grabbing some tissues before you read The Storm Whale for the first time. Whilst this is a lovely little story, it's also rather sad.
Noi lives in a small cottage by the sea, with his dad and six cats. His father is a fisherman and leaves the house early every morning and comes home after dark. Poor Noi is lonely.
One morning after a great storm Noi heads down to the beach to see if anything interesting has been washed up. As he walks along the beach he spots something in the distance. When he gets closer he realises that it's a whale.
Noi knows that it's not good for the whale to be out of the water so (somehow) he manages to take the whale home with him and make it comfortable in their bathtub. As you do. Finally though, Noi has someone to talk to, and whales make excellent listeners.
It takes a while before Noi's dad notices that a whale has been carried into the house and installed in the bathroom. But then, he also hadn't noticed how lonely his son was. Together they take the little whale back to his real home in the sea and say a fond farewell.
That's just the start of doing things together with his father and the book ends with a series of pictures of the pair of them doing things together. Whilst to Little Miss C this was just a lovely story, I have to admit that I was fighting back tears by the end. It's just so incredibly sweet and really pulls the heart strings!
Disclaimer: We were sent a copy of The Storm Whale by Simon and Schuster for the purposes of this review.
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