The Snail and the Whale

Written by Julia Donaldson
Illustrated by Axel Scheffler

Suitable for: 0-5 years, 5-7 years (Key stage 1)

Sponsored by: Hays Travel Foundation

Available braille grades: Grade 1, Grade 2

This book by the award-winning Gruffalo partnership is about a tiny snail who longs to see the world, and the enormous grey-blue humpback whale who gives him a lift on his tail. Together they set off on a fantastic journey, passing frozen icebergs and fiery volcanoes and meeting all sorts of sea animals on the way, until the tiny snail finds himself oppressed by the vastness of the world. But when disaster strikes and the whale is beached in a bay, it is the tiny snail who saves the day. Written in a catchy rhyming style with wonderfully detailed illustrations on every page, this is a simple and touching story about making a difference.// Read by Rachael Stirling.

Listen to an audio clip

Hello, my name is Rachael. This book is a wonderful tale of worldwide travel to far off lands. Our star of the show is a sea snail, and her travelling companion is a great big, grey-blue humpback whale.
(chilly sounding) Brrr! In this double page picture we're in Antarctica. How do we know this? Well, the water is full of large and small floating icebergs and lots of jolly penguins. (SFX wind end)
(SFX penguin calls) These black and white creatures are joyfully sliding about the ice on their tummies or jumping into the cold ocean.
Two orange parrots sit in the palm trees while two orange crabs are claw to claw in combat on the sandy beach.
A golden eagle soars in the sky with wings outstretched. (SFX Golden eagle sound sauing high above) Another eagle is standing proudly on a rock.
In the page on the left five boats are zigging and zooming about in the bright blue sea. (SFX speedboats zooming about in bay) The little speed boats have names, Rocket, Buzz, Hornet, Zipper and Thunderbolt. Rocket is a red one seater boat driven by a lady in a red swimsuit. It's zooming so fast that it's lifted up in the air above the waves. Her dog is enjoying the ride with ears flapping in the wind.
In the page on the right our blue whale is not submerged in the ocean. No. He's in the shallow lapping waves of a sandy beach. Almost all of his body is out of the water.

What's inside

A picture book with braille pages and raised tactile images.
Audio descriptions with music and sound effects in your chosen format of either CD or USB.
An ‘Articles for the Blind’ returns label for the free and convenient return of the box.