Harvey the Great Lakes Whale

By William, George Nelson

HARVEY THE GREAT LAKES WHALE By William George Nelson The story is about a young whale named Harvey, who, while chasing a ship on the ocean became caught on the ship's rudder Harvey the whale is... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 097962200X
• ISBN13: 9780979622007
• Release Date: May 2007
• Publisher: Whale Tale Publishing
• Length: 124 Pages
• Weight: 0.38 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

I loved this book and hated to see it end!

Reviewed by Brianne Plach (age 10) for Reader Views (2/08) Have you ever taken a wrong turn and ended up somewhere wonderful? Sometimes making a mistake can lead to an exciting adventure. Harvey is a young whale who doesn't always listen to every thing his parents tell him. His not listening has led him to become entangled in a ship. Unable to free himself, he ends up traveling many miles from his home and the salt of the ocean. Being in fresh water rather than salt water gives him an opportunity to make new friends and learn about where he now lives. His new best friend is Tommy Trout. Being friends they help each other out of difficult situations. Some of the other characters he meets are: Gertrude the Gossipping Sea Gull, Susie Salmon and Stuart Sturgeon. This is more than just a great story book. After each chapter, there are descriptions of many different types of fish. It is like a travel book to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I have visited some of the very same sites that Harvey visits. I remember feeling much the same way when he found himself inside the Soo Locks between the United States and Canada. I loved this book and hated to see it end! If you are looking for a book to get your young fisherman or fisherwoman hooked on reading, you will definitely want to catch "Harvey the Great Lakes Whale!"

A Whale of a Tale

"Harvey the Great Lakes Whale" truly is a whale of a tale. The back cover promises it is "educational and fun for kids of all ages" and it fulfills that promise brilliantly. The story begins when the young whale, Harvey, rather than listening to his mother and staying away from the ships in the North Atlantic Ocean, decides to try and race one. Harvey ends up getting his fluke--his tail fin--this is an educational book so we learn about fish fins among other interesting facts--caught in the rudder of a ship. The ship is too fast and bad weather makes the water too rough for Harvey's family to rescue him. Harvey soon finds himself being pulled by the ship through the St. Lawrence Seaway, then Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, Lake Huron, and finally Lake Superior. He passes through the many locks along the Great Lakes, and he meets many fish who try to help him without success; only when he reaches Lake Superior is he able to free himself, and then Harvey cannot get back through the Soo Locks to his family. But Harvey's adventures have only just begun. He soon meets many interesting characters in the Great Lakes--not only fish, but also Clyde the clam, and my favorite, Gertrude the gossiping seagull. Being young and playful, and not quite having learned his lesson from getting his fluke stuck in a rudder, Harvey enjoys surprising humans who cannot believe their eyes when they see a whale in Lake Superior. Harvey amazes the tourists on the glass bottom shipwreck tours in Munising Bay, and he even frightens an ice fisherman. Although he gets in trouble with the fish council for upsetting the humans, Harvey eventually comes to feel at home in Lake Superior. Amid telling all of Harvey's adventures, author William Nelson has inserted many details about the history of the Great Lakes. Each time Harvey meets a new kind of fish, a page is inserted describing the type of fish, including its Latin name, how much it weighs, its color, and some interesting facts--did you know carp actually came to North America from China, or that sturgeon can live for seventy-five years? These short descriptions of various fish will be educational to youngsters and serve as an early guidebook to future fisherman. Harvey also learns a lot about shipwrecks on the Great Lakes, including the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, which he visits in its watery grave. The illustrations, by Emily Mauchmar, are not only charming pictures of Harvey and his friends, but they are also accurate portrayals of different kinds of fish, ranging from pike and trout to sturgeon and salmon, including whiskers and number of fins. "Harvey the Great Lakes Whale" is a great book for all ages, either to be read aloud to young children, or for children ages eight or older to read by themselves. Adults will find it just as enjoyable, while they also learn a bit about the Great Lakes. I, for one, had no idea there were ten locks a ship would have to pass through to get into Lake Superior from the Atlantic Ocean