Picture Book #13 Write-Up

Author: Mac Barnett

Title: Billy Twiters and his Blue Whale Problem

Illustrator: Adam Rex

Genre: Fantasy

Subgenre: Picture Book

Theme: You should always do as your mother and father ask of you.

Primary/Secondary Characters: Billy Twitters, the Blue Whale, his parents, and the kids at school

Award(s)/Publication Year: Bank Street Award/2009

Publishing Company: Disney-Hyperion Books  
Brief Summary/Book Usage: This book is humorous and tells a story about a little boy who does not listen to his parents. His parents tell him over and over again, “Billy if you do not clean your room we are going to buy you a blue whale, Billy if you do not eat all your peas we are going to buy you a blue whale.” Billy thought he was smarter than that, for he knew how large a blue whale was and he knew you just could not up and have one delivered to your house. So instead of listening to his parents he did nothing. The next morning for school Billy rushed to the front door to leave, as he opened the door he noticed he could not get out because there was a large blue whale merging from the door. His parents had indeed gotten a whale delivered over night by “Fed Up”. His parents told him he must take his whale everywhere he goes so he had to put the whale on his skateboard and pull him to school, once in class Billy tried his hardest to hide the whale from his teacher, but you know the teacher saw him. Then the cowboy movie they were supposed to watch in class was cancelled to learn about blue whales. Billy classmates were not happy with him at all. After learning about whales all day Billy finally headed home, once home his parents gave him his whale’s owner guide before he went to bed he had to wash, wax, and check the whale for barnacles. Just when Billy thought he was done he had to feed his whale, so he went down to the sea and gathered plenty of water in his buckets. He then went back to his whale and poured the water into his mouth. While doing this he noticed how much room the whale had in his mouth, it was definitely big enough for his room, so he moved himself in. Inside he noticed he would not have to see his bossy parents or friends from school that had been making fun of him. I would use this book in my classroom and I would tell the children to respect and listen to their elders. I could also use this book to teach about whales, because it has a lot of factual information inside.