This is a great book for anyone who wants to learn about whale hunting or about a girl and her life. I would recommend this book to anyone.


A young girl's diary of life on a whaling ship.   November 9, 2000
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

Nine-year-old Laura, daughter of a whaling captain, has never even seen her parents' home in New Bedford, Massachusetts. She was born on the Sandwich Islands (present-day Hawaii) and has lived most of her life there. But now, her father has decided that the whole family will join him on this voyage home to Massachusetts. So Laura, her mother, and her seven-year-old brother board her father's ship and sail north to the Arctic, where they must face excitement, danger, and long days of boredom before they can return home. This book featured lovely drawings and was told through Laura's diary entries. Laura's character was based on two real daughters of whaling captains, Laura Jernengan and Mary Williams. This is a good book for younger readers interested in historical fiction.


Diary of a whaling daughter   July 2, 2000
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

This book is based on the true life experiences of two girls who accompanied their whaling families aboard whaling vessels at the end of the ninteenth century. Their experiences are combined in this fictional journal chronicling a character's life at sea.

The girl's voice is vivid and real, her experiences easy to imagine.

The illustrations sometimes try to look like a child's ink sketches in a diary and sometimes are double-page color depictions of incidents in the book.

I think the placement of the glossary at the beginning is great. I enjoyed the author's note at the end also.