The Snail and the Whale

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Everyone, including the local firemen rushed to the beach and they all began spraying the whale to keep him cool while some of the children dug around him to provide water from under the sand. Then the tide came in and much to everyone's relief the whale, complete with snail on its tail, took to the water once more. Find out about snails, whales and other creatures shown in the book. Where do they live? What do they eat? Donaldson has said that it is one of her favourite books, due to its similarity in rhyming style to the works of Edward Lear, of which she was fond of as a child. [1] Plot [ edit ] I really enjoy writing verse, even though it can be fiendishly difficult. I used to memorise poems as a child and it means a lot to me when parents tell me their child can recite one of my books. I also continued to write “grown-up” songs and perform them in folk clubs and on the radio, and have recently released two CDs of these songs.

On 6 November 2018, it was announced that BBC One and Magic Light Pictures would bring audiences The Snail and the Whale for Christmas 2019. The music is supplied by French composer and musician Rene Aubry, [4] and the animation was provided by Triggerfish Animation Studios. [5] The 26-minute production aired on BBC One at 2:30pm on 25 December 2019, [6] and again at 2:05pm on 1 January 2020. It was released on DVD on 10 February 2020 in the United Kingdom. This precipitates an epic journey that sees the snail and the whale in icy seas, observing mountains and golden sands on the shore, under the sea admiring the sea-life, surviving a thunderstorm and avoiding pleasure seekers in a holiday resort. The Snail and the Whale is a heart-warming story about how friendship can come about in the most remarkable way.Look at pictures of snails and whales and think of words / sentences / paragraphs to describe them (see Resources below). Read this again (November 2019) as I can't resist the brilliant Donaldson/Scheffler combination. And it is just as good, if not better, than when I first read it. They sailed to towering icebergs and far off lands, fiery mountains and golden sands and all the while the waves arched and crashed around them but the snail remained safe on the tail of the whale. When they went underwater the snail was still safe and she was much admired by passing stripy fish and sharks with hideous grins. The human activity makes the humans swim too close to the shore. Can you find out when this might have happened to real whales in the past? Discuss what we might be able to do to stop it from happening again.

My real breakthrough was THE GRUFFALO, again illustrated by Axel. We work separately - he’s in London and I’m in Glasgow - but he sends me letters with lovely funny pictures on the envelopes. And this is the snail with the itchy foot! “A snail! A snail!” The teacher turns pale. “Look!” say the children. ”It's leaving a trail.” This is the trail Of the tiny snail, A silvery trail saying . . . At the end of the story, the snail tells his friends all about his adventure. Can you write what he might have said to them? The pair endured thunderstorms and zigzag lightning and the snail was amazed by everything she encountered and everything she saw and when she gazed at the sky, the sea, the land and the waves she was often heard to say, 'I feel so small.'Funnily enough, I find it harder to write not in verse, though I feel I am now getting the hang of it! My novel THE GIANTS AND THE JONESES is going to be made into a film by the same team who made the Harry Potter movies, and I have written three books of stories about the anarchic PRINCESS MIRROR-BELLE who appears from the mirror and disrupts the life of an otherwise ordinary eight-year-old. I have just finished writing a novel for teenagers. This is the sky So vast and high Sometimes sunny and blue and warm, Sometimes filled with a thunderstorm, With zigzag lightning Flashing and frightening The tiny snail On the tail of the whale. This is the tide coming into the bay, And these are the villagers shouting, “Hooray!” As the whale and the snail travel safely away . . . The Snail and the Whale is a 2003 children's picture book written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler. It won the 2004 Early Years award for the best pre-school book, the 2005 Blue Peter award for Best Book to Read Aloud, and the 2007 Giverny award for Best Science Picture Book. The Snail and the Whale has also been adapted into an unabridged audiobook, a stage play and translated into British Sign Language. In 2019, a short film based on the book was released. And she gazed at the sky, the sea, the land, The waves and the caves and the golden sand, She gazed and gazed, amazed by it all, And she said to the whale, “I feel so small.”

There are lots of adjectives and other descriptive words in the story which describe different things. Can you find them all? Could you make a poster which shows what they are?

Clips

Icebergs, fiery mountains and golden sands, caves beneath the crashing waves, and storm tossed seas are all part of the adventure. And then the whale gets lost and he ends up on the beach in trying to avoid speedboats. It looks like the end of the journey for the poor whale.