Dear Professor Whale

Megumi Iwasa's Dear Professor Whale is a gentle letter-writing story for 6 year olds about a very old whale who'd love a friend to call him Whaley.

What happens

These days Professor Whale has Whale Point all to himself. Once the sea there was black with whales, but the other families moved away and his own grew old. Now he spends his days floating in the blue (his favourite colour in the whole world) and trying very hard not to nod off.

He's retired from teaching, and he'd really like a friendlier name than Professor. Pelican won't hear of it. So he writes a whole bundle of letters, and poor Seal has to swim to the far ends of the sea to deliver them.

At last a reply comes, from a little whale called Wally on an island the Professor has never heard of. Wally's grandad once lived at Whale Point too, and he came second in the Whale Point Olympics every single time. The gold always went to one truly enormous whale. (Who do you think that was?)

Soon his old friends come surging back through the waves. Bubbles, Whistler and Bella Balena, his first love! And before long there's a brand-new Olympics for the young ones, with seals swimming, penguins racing and whales spouting as high as they can.

It's such a warm, funny read-aloud. Pelican commentates on the races like a breathless sports reporter. The best moments are all about kindness. Seal, the fastest swimmer by miles, turns back to keep the slowest seal company, and the penguins' race doesn't go to plan either (in the loveliest way).

There's a soft thread of sadness running through it. Wally's grandad has died, and the Professor thinks quietly about friends who are gone. It's handled very tenderly, the way a grandparent might talk about the old days, and the chapters are short enough to read one or two a night.

What to read next

If they love this one, Yours Sincerely, Giraffe is where Pelican's delivery service first took off. A bored giraffe in Africa sends a letter to whoever lives on the other side of the horizon, and it lands with the Professor's one and only pupil.