Little Master Melville teaches little ones the language of the sea in Moby-Dick: An Ocean Primer. From ships and sailors to squawking gulls and moody good captains, Alison Oliver’s brilliant illustrations and Jennifer Adams’ clever, simple text will make a sea dog out of any young shipmate.
Jennifer Adams is the author of a dozen books including Remarkably Jane: Notable Quotations on Jane Austen and the popular Y Is for Yorick: A Slightly Irreverent ABC Book for Grown-Ups. Jennifer works as a writer and editor in Philadelphia.
Alison Oliver runs Sugar design studio. Alison’s design portfolio includes everything from logos to packaging and product design for clients such as Chronicle Books, Citibabes, and Aerie, as well as Gibbs Smith. She lives in New York.
- Moby Dick - a BabyLit� Ocean Primer
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful.
Things You Might See at Sea
By tvtv3
MOBY DICK: A BABLIT OCEAN PRIMER is a board book for babies, toddlers, and young children that incorporates elements of Herman Melville’s novel MOBY DICK into it. Originally, I found the concept of the BabyLit books was an interesting one. After reading a few of them, it became apparent that the concept didn’t really matter all that much because these primer books really weren’t all that indistinguishable from other primer books on the same subjects (colors, numbers, opposites, etc.). MOBY DICK: A BABYLIT OCEAN PRIMER is the best book in the BabyLit series I have examined. Don’t expect this to be a children’s version of the Moby Dick story. Instead, this is an “ocean primer” and the book introduces youngsters to things found in the ocean (and the story MOBY DICK). The basic set-up of the book is that an element, object, or concept is introduced. These objects take up two whole pages. In addition, on the rest of the page are examples of the object or thing mentioned. In addition, some pages have a short quote from the novel or a question. The objects discussed are sailors, ship, gulls, captain, waves, fish, anchor, harpoons, whale, and stars. As an ocean “primer” MOBY DICK: A BABLIT OCEAN PRIMER works rather well. Just don’t expect to find a condensed version of the novel.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
ADORABLE GRAPHICS USING A CELEBRATION OF THE CLASSICS TO TEACH EARLY EDUCATION CONCEPTS
By The Literacy Advocate
Gibbs Smith is a small company which makes use of classic literature to produce current board books and other products that celebrate some of history's finest writing. Each of the board books takes a classic work of literature and focuses on one educational element which it uses words, concepts, and themes from the classic story to teach.In Moby Dick's OCEAN PRIMER, the concept of marine life is explored in terms of ocean and whaling. These board books are quite short, like a typical board book, with one or few words per page, and lovely graphic illustrations which visually interpret the word presented. The color palette and art style are delightful in all books in this series, and Moby Dick is no exception.The entire series is a wonderful addition to the collection a parent would build for any young child. I recommend the entire series for picture recognition and corresponding letter and/or word association. The images are just plain fun, and would appeal to any child's imagination. Also recommended to older readers who love the classics.....it's a lovely, light-hearted addition to my classic literature shelf!Check out "Baby Lit" to see the many fine titles produced in this board book series; my favorites are Pride & Prejudice and Sense & Sensibility.
9 of 13 people found the following review helpful.not what I expected
By Elizabeth Robison
When I read the subtitle "An Ocean Primer," I expected to find a book with images of various aquatic life. What I got instead was one page of "fish" and one page of a "whale." The rest of the pages are occupied by various characters and things that might be associated with an ocean (i.e., sailors, stars, harpoons, anchor, etc.). I was a little disappointed at first. That said, my baby enjoys the book. The illustrations are bright and creative, and the board book format makes it perfect for turning and mouthing pages. I have gotten several books in this series, and I like them overall very much. However, with each one I've been a little surprised at the content, which is different from what I expected.
