GRANDFATHER BOWHEAD, TELL ME A STORY features a grandfather and grandson whale who are sharing stories. The grandchild asks for stories about specific things, like the joyful animals he has met and the giants he has seen, and the grandfather tells him briefly about those things while comparing them to the wonder of his love for his grandchild. Lovely full page, detailed illustrations are featured throughout.

What I loved: The story premise is really simple, and the softly lilting text is great for bedtime. The story gives basic information about life in the ocean and focuses on the love between grandparent and grandchild. The writing flows so smoothly that it is lovely to read aloud. The illustrations are absolutely stunning, consuming each page and featuring all sorts of interesting details, as well as palpable love between the main characters. The ocean really comes to life through the book.

The backmatter adds to the appeal of the book with information about bowhead whales and Inuktitut pronunciations (such as how to pronounce the name for a bowhead calf, Arvaaq).

What left me wanting more: As a small thing, the text color and font is a bit hard to read in low light, as the color of the images is dark blue and the text is printed in a blue font on most pages (the ones where it flips to white are easier to read).

Final verdict: A lovely story of love between grandparent and grandchild, GRANDFATHER BOWHEAD, TELL ME A STORY is a great pick for bedtime and ocean lovers. Beautiful illustrations make this a great pick for young toddlers through elementary school aged children.