The Great Whale of Kansas [Hardcover]

Richard W. Jennings (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up

As a young boy begins to dig a hole in his back yard, his shovel suddenly strikes something hard, and big, as it turns out, in more ways than one. What he discovers, preserved in the Cretaceous limestone is more spectacular than anything the town of Melville, Kansas, has ever seen before—something that should perhaps be left to the experts, or should it? As the determined eleven-year-old continues to dig, outlines of an ancient creature emerge, but what is it? And more importantly to some, whose is it?

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Gr. 5-7. With a tip of the hat to Louis Sachar's Holes (1999) and Oliver Butterworth's Enormous Egg (1956), this odd yet engaging work, more allegory than story, is told by an unnamed 11-year-old Kansas boy who digs a hole in his backyard and finds the fossilized remains of a prehistoric fish. As he digs deeper, he discovers that the creature has been preserved inside a whale--although conventional wisdom has it that whales never lived in Kansas, even when Kansas was underwater. As the fossilized whale is gradually uncovered, its ownership becomes murky. In a convoluted plot twist, some people assume the boy has created fossil art by drawing the fish inside the whale. This causes a sensation, and the state, which had considered the whale a fake, becomes interested again, demanding the fossil and the land around it for a theme park. A court battle ensues, but the boy's Native American friend manages to claim the land by invoking treaty law, and the fossil is ceremonially reburied (sticklers for authenticity may find the ceremony a bit casual). There's almost as much wrong with this book as there is right. The narrator himself says he sounds like a 40-year-old man (a snooty butler might be more on the mark). What's more, the story is wildly erratic--instructive one moment (information on fossils and Kansas), fantastic the next (the idea of a one-boy dinosaur dig). It juggles issues as diverse as the power of the state and the state of the boy's crush on his teacher. Yet it's hard not to be impressed by the ambitious plot and the quality of Jennings' writing, as apparent here as they were in his debut Orwell's Luck (2000). Jennings' best move, though, was building his story around a mysterious gigantic creature and a boy who loves it enough to do the impossible. The slow emergence of this fossilized wonder, a million years away from its last daylight, will captivate children who naturally allow for mystery. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"A quirky wonder about truth, perseverance, and the vagaries of fame. In Melville, Kansas, located at the geographic center of the country, an unnamed 11-year-old-boy discovers a fossil unlike any ever excavated before. . . .Jennings draws a delightful portrait of this remarkably determined and self-contained child." Kirkus Reviews with Pointers

"Odd yet engaging. . .it’s hard not to be impressed by the ambitious plot and the quality of Jennings’ writing." Booklist, ALA, Boxed Review

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children (September 24, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618102280
• ISBN-13: 978-0618102280
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #687,817 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Richard W. Jennings has published more than fifty essays, articles, and short stories, including The Tragic Tale of the Dog Who Killed Himself, published by Bantam Books in 1980 to widespread critical acclaim, in addition to his recent titles published with Houghton Mifflin -- Orwell's Luck, The Great Whale of Kansas, My Life of Crime, and Scribble. He is cofounder of a popular Kansas City-area bookstore and former editor of KANSAS CITY MAGAZINE. He has five children, four grandchildren, a dog, a cat, and a parrot and lives in Kansas.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE GREAT WHALE OF KANSAS delivers., July 12, 2004

By 

A Customer (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Great Whale of Kansas (Hardcover)

THE GREAT WHALE OF KANSAS is a tall tale about an 11-year-old boy living in Melville, Kansas, who loves to dig holes. Big holes.

"I believe there is nothing, absolutely nothing, half so much worth doing as simply digging a hole," the unnamed narrator explains. "A hole is an achievement. A great hole is a great achievement."

While attempting to build a pond in his backyard, the boy uncovers what appears to be a fossil. His persistent digging reveals it to be an extremely large fossil of a unique nature. Soon, thanks to the financial aspirations of the digger's father, the "Fossil Expert" for the state of Kansas gets involved and a series of controversies ensue involving who owns the fossil, what should be done with the fossil and whether or not it is really a fossil at all.

The unlikely tale is great fun to read because Jennings has given his narrator a perfect voice --- smart, wise-cracking and honest, the narrator tells his story engagingly, reporting the bizarre occurrences that pepper the story with a straightforwardness grounded in the idea that most anything can happen in a state as odd as Kansas. The narrator is both supported and opposed by a wacky cast of characters --- a mother who only makes sandwiches for meals, the pretentious "Fossil Expert," a bevy of eccentric members of the Quattlebaum family, and Phil, the solitary duck --- whose various outrageous actions are in perfect keeping with the tone of the story.

The narrator's most stalwart friends, Tom White Cloud, a bookstore owner of Native American descent, and Miss Joyce "Penny" Whistle, the narrator's science teacher on whom both Tom and the narrator have a crush, come to his aid late in the story when it appears everyone has lost sight of the real importance of what has appeared in the narrator's backyard. The "moral" of the story is laid on pretty thick by the book's end, but that hardly detracts from the overall pleasure THE GREAT WHALE OF KANSAS delivers.

--- (...)

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Great Whale of Kansas, January 18, 2002

A Kid's Review

This review is from: The Great Whale of Kansas (Hardcover)

I like the book so far,because in the story it tells
about a young boy in his backyard and,they are pucifect.

My best part is that when he is digging,and he discovers
preserved in the cretaceous lime stone is more than spectiacular.

The U.S.Mail the setting of the story is Highley Park,the
conflict is a fossil that is five-foot musasaur the characters are,Phile,Miss.Whistle,Chief Wah-Shum-Gah.