WE ARE DWARF SPERM WHALES!

On the way to school, a small whale with a big personality gets the lowdown from Mom on the whole cetacean clan.

It’s a good thing school isn’t too close, because Kogi (short for the scientific name Kogia sima) has much to absorb about what makes whales distinctive from other creatures, the differences between toothed and baleen whales, and how the entire family descended not from prehistoric marine reptiles like mosasaurs, but from a cat-size land-dwelling genus called Indohyus over the past 10 million years. The young enthusiast is thrilled to be a sperm whale, the largest of the toothed sort—but bummed when Mom offers a gentle correction. No, Kogi is a dwarf sperm whale, the smallest species of whale in the world. Worse yet, dwarf sperm whales don’t sing, nor do they swim as fast as dolphins. But, she consoles her fretful offspring, they are excellent echolocation hunters and suction feeders. Plus, along with their slightly larger cousins the pygmy sperm whales, they’re the only whales that can actually shoot ink out of their butts like squid to escape predators. “We’re stealth whales!” Kogi crows, high spirits restored. As in her book I’m a Dumbo Octopus! (2025), Lambelet fills her bright marine scenes with smiling but otherwise recognizably drawn sea life, peppers her work with a winning mix of humor and information, and closes with an actual photo of her effervescent, stubby-looking subject in the wild.

A fetching introduction that effortlessly delivers tons of fascinating facts.