{"id":45925,"date":"2025-12-13T14:27:29","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T19:27:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=45925"},"modified":"2025-12-13T14:27:29","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T19:27:29","slug":"review-of-in-the-world-of-whales-by-michelle-cuslito-illustrated-by-jessica-lanan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=45925","title":{"rendered":"Review of In the World of Whales, by Michelle Cuslito, illustrated by Jessica Lanan"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>In the World of Whales<\/em><\/p>\n

by Michelle Cusolito
\nillustrated by Jessica Lanan<\/p>\n

Neal Porter Books (Holiday House), 2025. 44 pages.
\nReview written November 18, 2025, from a library book.
\nStarred Review<\/p>\n

This stunningly beautiful picture book tells the true story of a free diver who encountered a pod of sperm whales surrounding a just-born baby whale calf with the umbilical cord still attached.<\/p>\n

The story is told poetically, with both the diver and the calf having to go to the surface for air periodically.<\/p>\n

The whales peer at the man
\nwith egg-shaped eyes the size of tangerines.
\nTheir school-bus-big bodies
\nwith rumpled backs
\nand bulbous heads
\ncould crush the man in a flash.
\nWild animals protect their young.
\nIs he in danger?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On the next spread, he copies the whales’ movements to be non-threatening, and more whales arrive to the group. Then, after he and the calf breathe:<\/p>\n

The mother nudges her offspring toward the newcomers.
\nOne by one,
\nshe introduces the baby to the community.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The man watches in wonder, and hears the clicks of the whales communicating with one another, including the newborn.<\/p>\n

It all builds to a doubled-spread with pages that fold out.<\/p>\n

Then, the mother nudges the calf toward the man.
\nShe presents her wrinkly baby as if to say,
\n“Meet the newest member of our family.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Six pages at the back tell more about sperm whales, more about free diving, and provide resources including this page of photos from the actual encounter in 2014<\/a>, and this amazing video of the encounter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The book captures the magic and wonder of the moment, and leaves you, like the original diver, in awe.<\/p>\n

michellecusolito.com<\/a>
\njessicalanan.com<\/a>
\nHolidayHouse.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Childrens_Nonfiction\/in_the_world_of_whales.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

Subscribe<\/a> for more reviews and talk about books.<\/p>\n

Join the conversation: What did you think of this book?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the World of Whales by Michelle Cusolito illustrated by Jessica Lanan Neal Porter Books (Holiday House), 2025. 44 pages. Review written November 18, 2025, from a library book. Starred Review This stunningly beautiful picture book tells the true story of a free diver who encountered a pod of sperm whales surrounding a just-born baby […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,33,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-childrens-nonfiction-review","category-science","category-starred-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45925"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46005,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45925\/revisions\/46005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}