Anne Siberell

I had mixed feelings about this book. I liked the writing because it was organized by sections and flowed well from one subject to the next. The book used text features such as bold text to help with the organization of topics. However, the topics went in a sequential order that was easy to follow if someone was not familiar with the opera. For example, the text describes the people that you may see onstage and then lists them in order before moving onto a different topic. With this, the show more writing flows well and is organized so that someone can easily find a specific section within the book. I did not like the illustrations in the book. The illustrations were simple and often did not provide a detailed picture. Because the opera is an unfamiliar topic to some people, it would have been beneficial to have illustrations that were detailed and accurate so that the audience can have an accurate image of the aspects of an opera. However, the illustrations were simple and it was hard to tell which illustration correlated to the topic being discussed. Overall, the big idea of this text is to inform readers about what an opera is and how it is put together. show less

Reading Level: Primary
Genre: Traditional Literature
Summary: A story told from the carvings on a totem pole about a mean whale who is forced to live on a mountain by the great eagle.
Evaluation: This is a fun piece of traditional literature that teaches about an interesting tradition from the Indians of the Northwest, the totem pole. This story helps the reader understand in a simple way that totem poles were used to tells stories and describe a tribe. This book is interesting and the totem show more pole story is exciting and helps the reader better understand what they are. At the back of this book, the author defines the tools used to carve the totem poles and also explains what the Native Americans used for the coloring on the pole. This is a great book to help the reader better understand a piece of Native American culture. show less

“Whale in the Sky” Written and illustrated by Anne Siberell

The art compliments the cultural focus. The illustrations are inspired by real life Northwest Coast totem poles. The illustrations are just as much a part of the story as the words.

A whale tries to eat all the salmon in the river. The frog tells thunderbird what whale is doing. Thunderbird takes the whale into the sky and places him onto a mountain until he agree to stay out of the river. I will use this story in the second grade to teach about Native Americans.