The Whale's Tale and the Otter's Side of the Story

Written by Kate Messner · Illustrated by Brian Biggs

Two boastful sea creatures argue over who is best, using the very same facts.

3.8 Goodreads · 331 ratings

40 pages· ~520L· AR ~3

$19.99Save 5%

In stock. Also at Amazon or Bookshop.

Bookroo's summary

A bragging whale and a showboating otter each insist they are the greatest animal in the sea. Read front to back, the book makes the case for whales; read back to front, the same words argue for otters. Built on true facts about both animals, it shows how one set of facts can support opposite opinions, with back matter about the real animals.

From the publisher

Readers will laugh aloud at the silly antics of a pair of opinionated sea mammals in a tale presenting one side of a debate when read front-to-back and the other side when read back-to-front, slyly revealing the way identical facts can be used to support opposite positions. A boastful whale and a showboating otter compete in a battle of words to prove that each is the greatest animal ever to swim the seas. Read one way, the first-person text brags about whales’ superiority; read the other way, it extols how much better otters are. Using true information about the two marine species to make both arguments, Kate Messner’s adroit text and Brian Biggs’s giggle-worthy artwork brilliantly illustrate how the same words can be used to express contradictory opinions when speakers have a one-sided view of the world. Includes factual back matter about language usage and the actual similarities of whales and otters.

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