Product Description

Worried that the whale living in her pond is unhappy, Emily writes to Greenpeace, who, though offering the best of advice, insist that it is impossible for a whale to live in a pond. Undeterred, Emily continues to seek the best course of action for her beloved whale, finally setting him free.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11273 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 32 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
An unusual and rather lovely picture book, Dear Greenpeace combines delightful, light illustrations with sharp, intelligent text in the form of letters.

Worried that the whale living in her pond is unhappy, Emily embarks on a correspondence with Greenpeace which, despite offering the best of advice, insists that it would be impossible for a whale to live in a pond. Undeterred, young Emily continues to seek the best course of action for her beloved whale, finally setting him free.

Unique, quirky, gentle, warm hearted and thoughtful, Dear Greenpeace is a pleasure to read, and cleverly avoids the trap of being preachy and precious about its subject. (Ages 3 to 6) -- Susan Harrison

A big book edition is also available.

Review
"* "An inventive addition to the library of picture books... This is a book that will appeal to readers of all ages." The School Librarian"

About the Author
Simon James is an award-winning author and illustrator of picture books for children. Among his acclaimed titles are Sally and the Limpet (9781406308464), My Friend Whale (9780744598056), The Day Jake Vacuumed (9781406308471) and Leon and Bob (9781406308495), which won the Smarties Book Prize Silver Medal and was nominated as the New York Times' Best Illustrated Book of the Year in 1997. Simon lives in Devon.

Customer Reviews

The Only Picture Book Ever to Distract Me
I cam across this book when I was working in a library and though I was supposed to shelve it, I put it to one side and snuck a peek at it every now and then.
I was very impressed, and immedietly set about getting it. I throughly enjoyed the witty comments and inocence of a girl who discovers a whale in her garden pond, and goes about trying to look after him. Her main source of advice is Greenpeace, though they will insist on telling her she couldn't possibly have a whale in her pond.
The pictures were also wonderful, and the idea of tracking the story of a girl and her whale through letters was highly successful.

A precious and magical little tale.
This little book caught my eye initially because of the strange title. From the minute I began to read It I was completely charmed. It is the story (written in letter form) about a little girl who believes she has found a whale in her garden pond. Sensibly so, she writes to Greenpeace to seek their advice on how she should look after it. The humour is derived from the Greenpeace replies, each one more adamant that there is absolutely "NO" possibility of a huge mammal residing there. Of course the beautiful illustrations let us in on the fact that Emily and her whale are enjoying time together! and her dogged calm persistance, when replying to Greenpeace is hilarious. The lovely ending (which I shan't reveal) Left me quite misty eyed! Even though my two year old is a little young for this story, I'm starting to read it to her, as I know that my joy and admiration for this story will rub off on her.

The only thing that dissapointed me a little was that I expected some of the proceeds to go to charity (With the link to greenpeace) It would have made it even more special.

A charming story, beautifully presented
This really is a delightful book. It’s a very short story – but beautifully presented. Each letter Emily writes is on a little notelet in an envelope stuck to the page addressed to Greenpeace. Greenpeace’s (fictional) replies are printed on alternate pages.

This makes for a really ‘personal’ kind of read with your child. Emily’s letters and envelopes are on sufficiently heavy grade paper that, with a little supervision from me, my three-year-old hasn’t done any damage to them yet.

The illustrations are charming – showing Emily earnestly corresponding with Greenpeace whilst family life goes on around her – Dad rushing out to work, her baby brother emptying his cereal all over the floor or the TV blaring out a gameshow as Emily composes her next letter.

We’ve read it so often that my daughter takes the letters out and pretends to read them out loud, and almost gets the actual content spot on for the point of the story we’re at.

My only complaint: it ends all too quickly.

Emily! Start writing to someone else!