Whale Trails: Before and Now by Lesa Cline-Ransome (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Whale Trails: Before and Now by Lesa Cline-Ransome Elizabeth Bush Cline-Ransome, Lesa Whale Trails: Before and Now; illus. by G. Brian Karas. Ottaviano/Holt, 2015 34p ISBN 978-0-8050-9642-2 $17.99 R 5-8 yrs A little girl joins her father aboard his boat, the Cuffee, which takes tourists out for a day of whale-watching. She explains the family business, comparing it to the early days of commercial whaling, with full-color pictures on the verso of each spread and sepia illustrations on the recto (“The pier where our boat is docked is lined with booths that sell souvenirs, sunglasses, binoculars, and sunscreen”; “Before now, this pier was lined with the shops of shipbuilders, candle makers, blacksmiths, and sail makers”). The tourists’ excitement upon first seeing a whale breach contrasts vividly with the moment in times past when the whalers shared the same sight and began their chase; double-page spreads for these scenes mark the climax of parallel adventures. The narrator clearly loves the family business, which allows respectful whale viewing from a safe distance, but she isn’t sternly judgmental about whale hunting in the past; in fact, she takes pride in the fact that she is a descendant of generations of African-American whalers. Karas’ pictures are not only engaging but packed with visual information that effortlessly supplements the text. Endnotes, complete with a glossary and a half dozen resources for further investigation, expand on the whaling industry (with a nod to critique of well-meaning eco-tourism, which may be interrupting whales’ behavior) and remark on black abolitionist and whaler Paul Cuffee, for whom the fictional tour boat is named. Copyright © 2015 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois