Martin Nelson Burton

I had very mixed emotions about this book. I liked the book overall but there were certain parts that I did not like. When I read the title of the book, I thought that it would be about a whale telling jokes. I liked the idea of that because children seem to like personification of animals. However, the book was about a little boy named Finston who wanted to tell jokes to whales for a living. I thought that this plot seemed a little too random for a young child. I also thought that the jokes being told might be a little too difficult for a child to understand. For example, one of his jokes ended in, “I did that on porpoise.” When reading it, I understood the pun because it refers to a sea animal somewhat resembling a dolphin. However, a child’s vocabulary would not be advanced enough to understand this joke.
In the end, Finston was successful in making the killer whales laugh, not by telling jokes, but by making funny faces at them. The trainers at the park saw how happy the whales were and knew that Finston was, in fact, a whale comedian and needed him for the job. I really like this part of the story because it encourages children to keep trying even if their dreams may seem a little difficult to come by. That being said, the overall message of this book is for kids to follow their dreams.… (meer)