Playful orca Yuki learns a valuable lesson on following his mama’s advice in this striking picture book. When Yuki’s mama warns him not to swim close to shore in their Iceland home, Yuki brushes off her advice and returns to his deep-sea antics, diving and cavorting with a cascade of crustacean friends clinging to his back. But when he stumbles onto a ship near the shore, Yuki can’t help but be curious—and swims far closer than he should, netting him a quick capture by humans who force him into a performance show in Mexico. Film director Bluth, the filmmaker and animator responsible for classics like An American Tail and The Secret of Nimh, doesn’t disappoint in this children’s book debut. The story teems with colorful, bubbly characters who immediately plunge into readers’ hearts, center of which is Yuki, of course, but his underwater pals steal several scenes as well, particularly their open-mouthed despair when Yuki disappears at the hands of humans, a moment that Bluth crafts with stunning emotion: “‘Yuki!’ they whisper. ‘Yuki’, they shout, till their tiny crustaceous voices give out.” That’s just one of several evocative scenes, and young readers will be swept into this tale of friendship and family as they learn, alongside Yuki, that some choices come with devastating consequences—but, in the end, love truly saves the day.
Bluth’s bright, splashy illustrations are the crowning jewel, showcasing Yuki in the best—and worst—moments of his life, always with breathtaking emotion. Color schemes shift from playful to dismal as Yuki works through his forced captivity (and Hollywood takes a swipe at making him the most famous whale ever), but the story’s happy ending is an absolute wonder to behold, rich with the effervescent joy of reunited friends and family. Bluth credits Yuki’s child fans for his happily ever after in an empowering windup that will thrill young readers.
Takeaway: Young orca learns the value of friends and family in this stunning underwater tale.
Comparable Titles: Andrea Zuill’s Gustav Is Missing!, Dan Yaccarino’s Morris Mole.
Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A
A captive young orca is a showbiz star, but he just wants to go home.
This good-hearted picture book about a playful orca named Yuki is clearly based on real-life captive orca Keiko (subject of the 1993 movie Free Willy) and the letter-writing campaign that led to his release. Black-and-white Yuki, dwarfing his goofy ocean pals (including an octopus and assorted fish and crustaceans) with his big, rounded body, becomes the main attraction at an aquarium in Mexico and stars in a movie about Nellie McGee, a whale “who yearned to be free.” The movie’s a big hit, but “one little girl had a curious thought. ‘How come Nellie is free, and Yuki is not?’” Children all over the world write letters on Yuki’s behalf; thanks to their kind hearts, the orca returns to frolic once more in his ocean home. This is veteran animator Bluth’s debut as a children’s author and the first of a planned series of “fables” from Don Bluth Studios, which specializes in hand-drawn illustrations and animation. (It isn’t a stretch to imagine Bluth’s expert, hand-painted artwork as an animated feature.) The story is told through loosely rhyming text, and each full-page illustration conveys a sense of motion in the positioning of foreground details and in the shifting palette of background colors that reflect mood, settings, and plot progression.
Strong visual appeal and lively storytelling with a caring, humane message.
