Book Giveaway! Seriously Down To The Wire, Guys! (+ Review)

Hi all! We’re closing in on the deadline for the Winter’s Tail Prize Giveaway, and I wanted to post my own review to give you all an additional spot to post your thoughts. Post, friends. You know that you want to win that giant stuffed dolphin.

I read Winter’s Tail out loud to my goldfish Bob. I thought he would find it inspirational, due to the tragic loss of his own tail in a freak bitten-in-half-by-his-own-parent accident. He was impressed, although slightly saddened when I explained that I, lacking prostheses-building skills, would be unable to make him his own replacement limb. Poor Bob.

But I digress.

I’m relatively certain that Winter’s Tail has some of the most adorable photos I have ever seen. That’s a trademark of all books in this series – When I read Owen and Mzee I was literally giggling with girlish joy. Baby hippos! – and there’s no disappointment here. From the front cover (Winter smiling and flashing her snazzy prosthetic) to the back cover (Winter grinning open-mouthed at the camera as she peeks out into the frame), you will feel as though you’re actually hanging out at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium watching her swimming around.

If you’re one of those strange, sad people who doesn’t like pictures of adorably frolicking dolphins, fear not. There is some text in this sucker. I know that Shel had mentioned in her previous post the amount of actual writing that accompanies the photos, but I wasn’t really paying attention at the time. It’s not overwhelming until you hit the more informative pages at the very back of the book – pages which I’m sure any parent would dread getting to, given the paragraphs and paragraphs about the history of the aquarium and tips for training dolphins. Even this text, however, remains reading-level appropriate.

I thought the style of writing was perfect for this type of book – clear and animated, without talking down to the reader. Winter never becomes cartoonishly anthropomorphized, but the authors give you enough information about how she was reacting (always with a “can-do attitude,” of course) to allow her to become a real character.

The best part, in my opinion, about Winter’s Tail was the fact that I felt like I already knew her. There has been so much in the news recently (thanks, Yahoo Headlines!) about Winter and her wickedly impressive new swimming abilities, that reading this book was doubly interesting. You’ll definitely want to Google more info about Winter once you’ve read her “biography.”

Tasty Rating: !!!!

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