Bedtime Stories

Bedtime Stories is a regular feature on the PODcast ‘grappling with a box of frogs’ blog that focuses on POD’s favourite story.

It’s no surprise that the first book to feature in Bedtime Stories is an absolute gem from the superbly talented duo Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler.

The Snail and the Whale is thought to be Julia Donaldson’s favourite of all the books she’s written for Axel Scheffler to illustrate. Potentially because Julia felt she captured something of the soulful whimsy of the Edward Lear poems she enjoyed as a child.

It’s easy to understand why with a book that starts ‘this is the tale of a tiny snail and a great big, grey-blue humpback whale. This is a rock as black as soot, and this is the snail with the itchy foot’.

The Snail and the Whale tells the story of a sea snail that longs to sail much to the disapproval of the flock. Having left a silvery trail with the words ‘ lift wanted around the world’, the snail is offered the tail of a humpback whale with the promise of ‘shimmering ice and coral caves and shooting stars and enormous waves’.

The whale carries the snail on his tail on an amazing journey to far-off lands, fiery mountains and golden sands. Until the whale loses his way and swims too close to the shore and beaches himself.

Proving size is no obstacle, the snail with the itchy foot saves the whale by leaving a ‘save the whale’ trail on a blackboard in a local school. The whale is rescued by the villagers and firemen who spray him to keep him cool and before long the whale and the snail swim safely away.

Back at the dock the whale and the snail tell their wonderful tail. And how the snail saved the life of the humpback whale. The whale then holds out his tail and on crawls snail after snail after snail.

So the great big, grey-blue humpback helped a tiny snail that longed to sail. The tiny snail saved the whale when its was lying beached in the bay. So don’t follow the flock, explore your dreams and regardless of the size of the task in hand, there’s always a way to help a friend in need.

The Snail and the Whale is truly wonderful. The words flow beautifully and the illustrations mirror the words perfectly. It’s also an incredibly calming tale and POD’s favourite book this week by a country mile.