written by Chris Kunz
Random House. Australian, Junior. Paperback rrp $9.95
With her second series of four books in the bindi Wildlife Adventures, Bindi Irwin is ensuring that young children learn about the importance of protecting fragile animal habitats.
In A Whale of a Time Bindi introduces her two English friends to the sights of Australia. Bindi surprises the twins, Andy and Caitlin, by taking them whale watching off the Queensland coast, south of the Great Barrier Reef.
Andy suffers sea sickness and Caitlin has images of pirates floating through her mind, but the day begins well with a whale and her calf coming to play near the three friends’ boat.
Disaster strikes when a fishing trawler gets into trouble. An overboard fisherman is rescued but the friends soon find that there are far worse problems at sea. A ship is leaking oil and it isn’t the fishing trawler or Bindi’s boat. Where is it coming from? The whales are heading right for the slick.
Not only is A Whale of a Time a great adventure story for ages 6 to 12 but a useful source of whale information. I never knew whales birth in warmer waters and stay until their young develop enough blubber for them to survive the icy waters of the south. Educational and factual, these books will be popular in every primary school library.
The Reading Stack reviewed Book 1, Trouble at the Zoo in August 2010.
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