Dolphin, Baby! - A Paragraphs Pick

Swim with a baby dolphin as he learns to survive — and play — in an engaging story splashed with facts and buoyed by bright illustrations.

Pop! Tail first, head last, Dolphin is born into the blue. He’s brand new, but helped by his mother, he swims up, up, up to take his first breath.

Readers are invited to join the baby calf as he follows his mom and discovers all there is to know about life under the sea, from catching his first fish to learning how to say his name with his very own whistle. Nicola Davies’s lyrical narrative and intriguing facts are accompanied by Brita Granström’s colorful illustrations, pulsing with the energy and movement of dolphins in their natural habitat.

From Kirkus Reviews:

Born tail first, a baby dolphin swims immediately to the surface to breathe, then follows his mother, nursing, learning her call, gradually exploring his world, playing, learning and developing his own personal whistle. Zoologist Davies has long experience writing about nature for young readers. Here, she describes the first six months of a bottlenose calf's life through the story of Dolphin and Mom. A sentence or two of narrative description appears on each page, with additional facts in a smaller, italic text. She chooses appropriate information--appearance, breathing, diving, feeding and communication--and constructs her story to demonstrate the calf's increasing independence. Her facts are accurate, and readers looking for specifics will appreciate the index and page numbers. An afterword identifies the particular species and reminds readers that caring for oceans will help ensure dolphin survival. Granström's acrylic paintings are beautiful. Spreading across two pages, they emphasize the blues of the dolphin's environment. The pink of their rostrums is occasionally and gloriously echoed in the sky.

This is an absolutely beautiful book and will make a wonderful addition to any young person's library.  It will be a great resource providing a child with some additional factual material augmenting the learning experience of any of our Island dolphin watch trips. The additional notes about dolphins, provided in a smaller font, on each page are a helpful tool for parents reading the narrative to the littler ones. And most of all it is just a lovely story with beautiful illustrations.

This book was HIGHLY RECOMMENDED by Amy E. Parker, Lower School Assistant Librarian, The Kinkaid School, Houston, Texas, in her review for Library Media Connection.