Baby Beluga (Raffi Songs to Read)

Book Description

Raffi's signature song and the top seller in his Songs to Read series, Baby Beluga is now available in a quality board book edition perfect for his youngest fans.

Customer Reviews:

Great for Special Ed Preschoolers with audio.......2007-09-26

Baby Beluga is a fantastic book for the class I work in. The three and four year old special ed students LOVE this book along with Raffi's music being played. I strongly recommend it for any child. I'm purchasing the book and the CD for my nephews who do not have any disabilities because I know they'll love it too.

My Daughter LOVES This Book!.......2007-08-23

My daughter is crazy about this book, and she has been since she was about 8 months old. I think the fact that you can't help but sing the story when you read it makes it much more interesting. I've never actually heard the whole song before, so I can only guess if I'm singing it correctly. She loves it though. As always, the cardboard pages make for a very durable baby book.

Classic sing-a-long.......2007-07-03

It's great to have a classic song in book form with attractive illustrations. It's one of my 11-month old's favorite bedtime books. He turns the pages while I sing him the tune. The pages are sturdy enough for him to turn them himself.

Wonderful!.......2007-05-29

This board book is a wonderful addition to our collection of books as the colors and images grab my son's attention and he can see the words that accompany the song I sing to him often. What a wonderful idea to create a book using the Baby Beluga lyrics.

Baby Beluga.......2007-05-28

A fun book for preschoolers! As a child care professional this is a book (and CD as well) that the children enjoy. They actually can see the pictures that go with the words of the CD. A must have for all Family Child Care Providers!

Beluga Days: Tracking a White Whale's Truths

Average customer rating:

Beluga Days
beluga days
Beluga Days Review
Beluga Days
Beluga Days

Beluga Days: Tracking a White Whale's Truths
Nancy Lord
Manufacturer: Counterpoint
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Conservation | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

Endangered Species | Conservation | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 1582431515
Release Date: 2003-12-23

Book Description

Living in waters adjacent to Anchorage, Alaska, the beluga whales of Cook Inlet are an isolated and genetically distinct population. Thought to number more than 1000 in the early 1990s, a sharp population decline has brought them near extinction. Original in approach and incisive in its questions, Beluga Days explores how conservation laws, management policies, and human behaviors have affected the shrinking beluga population. From hunters, regulators, environmentalists, researchers, and businesspeople to whale enthusiasts, Lord encounters an ongoing debate wrestling with the immediate need to protect the whales, as well as a respect for the centuries-old tradition of Native subsistence hunting. Beyond its compelling characters and particulars, Lord's story offers readers a deeper understanding of the often uncomfortable, often rewarding, juxtaposition of humans and the natural world.

Customer Reviews:

Beluga Days.......2005-12-05

Nancy Lord does a great job really opening your eyes to the dwindling numbers of beluga whales in Cook Inlet, Alaska. These numbers have dropped drastically from about 1,000 in 1990, to a couple hundred currently recorded today. The reader is introduced to the everyday threats to the belugas and what is being done, and what isn't being done, to help them. She focused primarily on one population in Cook Inlet which I thought would be somewhat disappointing. Starting the book I was hoping to gain a better knowledge of many belugas around the world, but through reading the book I found that it was actually better to focus on the one species because they were easier to keep track of and study everyday. Lord, who lives in Alaska, has completely immersed herself in the lives of the Cook Inlet belugas and the relevant doings of politicians, environmentalists, scientists, and the native people who still have the right to hunt whales. Lord offers different perspectives on the situation and considers who shares the responsibility for the declining number of belugas. The book is full of her personal encounters with the beluga whales of Cook Inlet, and the way she writes about these animals makes you care for them as much as she does. She recognizes the fact that the native Alaskan people do have the right to hunt these whales, and shows a deep respect for it, but at the same time is trying to do what she can to protect them. Overall this book enlightens readers of the Cook Inlet belugas and how they are threatened on a daily basis. She shows how truly difficult it is for her and the others involved to protect and save these whales. I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn more about the Cook Inlet belugas specifically, and mammal conservation in general.

beluga days.......2005-12-02

Beluga days is an extremely interesting book for anyone that is interested in the conservation of marine life or nature in general. The story follows author Nancy Lord and she takes many steps in gathering information and researching the Beluga whales of the Cook Inlet in Alaska. She goes into detail about the problems facing these belugas. The population has been decreasing rapidly as of late due to excess hunting and pollution. She also discusses the major contamination problem in the St.Lawrence river which is killing off many Belugas as well. However, much more emphasis is placed on the Cook Inlet whales.

I really enjoyed the way the book was written because if felt like i was learning about the situation along side Nancy Lord. The reader went along to meetings and different research projects concerning the matter. I also enjoyed learning about the political aspect of the issue. It was a very effective writing style.

Although i enjoyed the book thoroughly i wish that alittle more time could have been spent on the St.Lawrence belugas because I feel that the contamination of their waters is very important due to all of the dead belugas found to have high levels of toxins in their bodies.
Overall i thought it was a fun book to read and very informative.

I would recommend this book to anybody interested in marine animals and the current problems that are ruining the oceans.

Beluga Days Review.......2005-11-30

This is a compelling documentary about the small population of beluga whales at Cook Inlet in Alaska. It delves deep into many research techniques and theories concerning the depletion of this population in more recent years. The reader follows, fisherman, Nancy Lord as she attends conventions, research vessels and other locations while she takes a closer look at Cook Inlet belugas. Emphasis is put on reasons for depletion, questioning of the current status of whales and action that can be taken to both educate people and save the whales.
Lord talks with native hunters and expert scientists at conferences in Alaska and learns that overhunting and contamination are major concerns to Cook Inlet belugas. She travels all over to talk to many scientists about their own thoughts and concerns. She is able to board a research vessel as scientists do population counts, captures and tagging. Lord balances her education with a more casual visit to observe captive belugas at a zoo for a closer look. She doesn't restrict herelf to Cook Inlet belugas though; she participates in research about the St. Lawrence belugas and the connections with contamination. All of these are some of the captivating experiences that shape Lord's understanding of what is being done to, hopefully, save the beluga's.
Lord's style of writing helps the reader to become educated right along with her. She asks questions that any person would be compelled to ask and it made the book all the easier to be drawn into. It is quite easy to read although some difficult words work their way in occasionally.
She does have a tendency to go back to previous concerns, making it repetitive at times. Usually it's about the controversy over whether or not native hunters are the beluga's largest threat.
Overall, it is an intriguing book and would probably be best for people interested in any sort of nature or marine topics. I would recommend it especially to those interested in what goes on behind the scenes as far as research, getting an animal listed for concern or beluga depletion in general.

Beluga Days.......2005-11-29

Beluga Days is a terrific book about the Beluga Whale population in Cook Inlet, Alaska. The story tells how the population has decreased very significantly over the course of time, especially just recently. The book points out many reasons as to why the population has decreased and it is all due to human disregard. It tells of the Beluga Days, when the whales seemed over-populated, and people would kill them off like they meant nothing, but soon people began to realize the numbers were incredibly small and this could not be turned around. The book tells of the many uses of the Belugas and how they were viewed as predators to big-game fish, and these were originally why the whales were so popular to kill. Before too long the numbers had decreased so much and these beutiful creatures have not, and may not, ever recover. Lord
incorporates different historical events such as the ESA and the MMPA and this makes the book even more informative.

One thing, in particular, that I enjoyed was the style in which Lord wrote the book. At times in the book it seemed like Lord was interviewing major players in Beluga whale population in the Cook Inlet. The way the book starts is a great example as Lord talks to George Hayden, a former Beluga hunter from the Cook Inlet, and her conversations with Hayden lead to other stories of how the Belugas have changed over the course of time.

The novel never really touched on other populations of Belugas and this is the main thing that I disliked. I wish that Lord talked more about other Beluga populations in other regions around the Arctic besides the Cook Inlet. Even though much of the book was only about the Cook Inlet, Lord's writing ability made most of the reiterating of the same Beluga population to be tolerable and still interesting.

I would recommend this book to people who have any interest in marine mammal conservation. It was an interesting and enlightening read and I, a conservation novice, enjoyed the book thoroughly.

Beluga Days.......2005-11-29

Beluga Days takes an in-depth look at the plight of a distinct population of beluga whales in Cook Inlet, Alaska. Plauged by over-hunting, these whales have fallen from a population of approximately one thousand animals in 1990 to an estimated two hundred fifty today. The book discusses the politics of regulating native hunting, the difficulties of getting the whales placed on the endangered species list, and the pros and cons of placing belugas in captivity. Lord herself is a salmon fishermman who is familiar with the Cook Inlet region and the ecosystem which exists there. She has observed the steady decline of the belugas from her own home and explores the reasons for their decline and the whales themselves in Beluga Days. Lord witnesses a native beluga hunt, helps perform research on the slaughtered whales, and spends getting to know the natives involved in the hunt and the importance of the beluga to their society. She also encounters belugas from places other than Alaska by visiting captive belugas in Chicago and going out on a research vessel to observe the ailing population of the St. Lawrence estuary in Quebec.
Lord has managed to write an extremely informative novel without making it too complex or "wordy," as is the case with many science and nature-based works. Her style of writing held my interest but still relayed information. I also appreciated the unbiased point of view from which she writes. Lord obviously wants the population to thrive once more in Cook Inlet, but she also understands the significance of native hunting and discusses different opinions on the best ways to save this population.
One thing about Beluga Days which I disliked was the monotony of its having such a finite subject matter. The majority of this novel discusses only one distinct population and the information starts to seem repetitive after reading for long periods of time. This makes Beluga Days a difficult novel to read in one sitting.
Although this book would not be of interest to everyone I would recommend it to anyone interested in cetaceans or nature in general. At some points it may be easier to comprehend with some previous knowledge of whales, but is written simply enough so that most people can appreciate it.

Average customer rating:

A fun Arctic introduction plus science
Arctic Learning Fun
A Fun Artic
Fun As Well As Educational
A playful children's picturebook

In Arctic Waters
Laura Crawford
Manufacturer: Sylvan Dell Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Picture Books | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0976882345

Book Description

An arctic variation of "This is the House that Jack Built," In Arctic Waters follows polar bears, walruses, seals, narwhals and beluga whales as they chase each other around "the ice that floats in the Arctic waters." Not only is the rhythmic, cumulative prose good for early readers; it is a pure delight to read aloud. The "For Creative Minds" section helps children learn how these animals live in the cold, icy arctic region.

Customer Reviews:

A fun Arctic introduction plus science.......2007-09-24

A fun book that introduces a preschooler to third grader about the Arctic animals and their relationship to the natives in the area. You can play this book both ways, as a fun rhyme for kids and as a more serious science topic for older kids. The book not only has the basic story line but also has additional materials in the back that explains the scientific and cultural significance of each character such as the Inuit's role in area.

-Kaycee Ogoc, Library Weekly

Arctic Learning Fun.......2007-05-23

In Arctic Waters

What an enjoyable way to learn about Arctic sea and land animals in this rhyming tale! The book, created by author Laura Crawford, has the cadence and cumulative story of the rhyme "The House That Jack Built." It is wonderful that the charm and humor in the book is such that a young child can easily identify with each animal.

Ben Hodson's paintings wed the rhyming text perfectly. Children will delight in the expressions of each animal, expressions that tell the tale as much as the text. At the end of the book there is a mini encyclopedia where the inquisitive child can learn more about each animal. It can also be the basis of a classroom unit. Highly recommended for ages three to seven.

A Fun Artic .......2007-03-28

Parents, grandparents and teachers looking for a fun read for young children will embrace this new book by Laura Crawford, a Chicago-area [...] teacher. The book has the familiar rhythm and plot of The House That Jack Built, but the author has set this story in Arctic Waters on a floating chunk of ice. One by one the animals, including a fish, a blubbery thick beluga, a narwhal and more, get on the floating ice until it can hold no more. The attractive illustrations are just right. The story is fun to read aloud. Sure to become a favorite of young readers.

Fun As Well As Educational.......2007-03-20

Reminiscent of This is the House that Jack Built, Artic Waters is written in the same type of ongoing rhyme. The characters in this charming book are: a furry white polar bear, a walrus, a seal, a beluga, a fish, and the man who hunts them. The sea creatures are saved when a large piece of iceberg breaks off, the fish scurry to safety and the hunter paddles off to safer hunter grounds.

Sylvan Dell books are always charming, funny, and brightly illustrated. But the most wonderful thing about them is the "For Creative Minds," in the back of each book. Arctic Waters offers five-pages of educational supplements. Beginning with instructions how to find the Arctic Circle, there is also information about the people who live there, polar bears, walruses, seals, narwhal, and beluga whales.

You and your child will love this book

A playful children's picturebook.......2007-03-07

Written by second-grade teacher Laura Crawford and illustrated by award-winning children's book artist Ben Hodson, In Arctic Waters is a playful children's picturebook that narrates an arctic water adventure among different native creatures in a "House that Jack Built" style poem. As the animals chase one another in the waters around an iceberg, suddenly a human hunter appears to change everything! The final portion of In Arctic Waters is an educational supplement that teaches young people more facts about the arctic and its native animals, as reviewed for accuracy by wildlife experts. Highly recommended.

Average customer rating:

Beluga Whales (True Books)
Ann O. Squire
Manufacturer: Children's Press (CT)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0516255800

The World of the Arctic Whales: Belugas, Bowheads, and Narwhals

Average customer rating:

The World of the Arctic Whales: Belugas, Bowheads, and Narwhals
Stefani Paine
Manufacturer: Sierra Club Books for Children
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Arctic | Polar Regions | Travel | Subjects | Books

Mammals | Field Guides | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0871563789

Book Description

This new paperback edition, lavishly illustrated with 45 dramatic color photgraphs, portrays the natural history of belugas, bowheads, and narwhals--the only three species of whales that live year round in the icy Arctic waters.

The Beluga Café: My Strange Adventures with Art, Music, and Whales in the Far North

Average customer rating:

Who are we to say
a wonderful story

The Beluga Café: My Strange Adventures with Art, Music, and Whales in the Far North
Jim Nollman
Manufacturer: Sierra Club Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Scientists | Professionals & Academics | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Memoirs | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

General | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books

The Man Who Talks to Whales: The Art of Interspecies Communication

ASIN: 1578050871

Book Description

Animal communication expert Jim Nollman has sung with orcas, plucked a Jew's harp in waters teeming with humpback whales, and shaken rattles in the company of bottlenose dolphins. Now, in this heartfelt and quirky true adventure story, Nollman and two artist friends set out for Canada's vast Mackenzie Delta, electric guitar and underwater sound equipment in tow, to make music with belugas--the elusive white whales of the Arctic.
Traveling the expanses of this beautiful northern land, the three friends unwittingly find themselves at the center of a heated controversy over the Beaufort Sea belugas: Why have the whales stopped coming into the Mackenzie Delta, possibly jeopardizing their own calves, who live the first part of their lives in these shallow, warm waters? As they attempt to unravel the mystery, they encounter various intriguing characters now laying claim to the resources of the Mackenzie Delta region--Native people (who are allowed to hunt the whales), wildlife officials, and oil company engineers--all vividly described by Nollman. Along the way, he also conveys both the wonders and the realities of being deep in the wilderness--experiencing the connectedness of all living things while scratching the bites of the world's most fearsome mosquitos.
With its rich and passionate nature writing evoking lovely and remote landscapes, The Beluga Café suggests profound metaphors for our time about animal rights and animal intelligence, the role of science in conservation, the politics of extinction, and the place of art in the epic struggle to save the natural world.

Customer Reviews:

Who are we to say.......2005-07-06

This is a very powerful book. It is not the typical wilderness adventure book. Unlike the TV nature show, amazing things don't happen every few mintutes. In fact few amazing things happen at all, yet the whole experience of small wilderness experiences add up to a book that will take you to another place.

"It seems critical to me to devote some part of each year to this nothingness, this time without time, this confrontation with animal demons real and imagined, learning once again how to surrender to some internal environment made external."

Nollman confronts the question of us versus them strongly in this book with the us being modern society and them being animals, nature and native cultures. He feels the chance has been lost to learn from "them" in a way that everyone would benefit, instead of disregarding that knowledge and destroying it.

Chapter 15 begins with a wonderful quote by Carl Safina from Song for the Blue Ocean. "Ecosystems are now like history books with many of the pages ripped out. And when people come along there is no way for them to know what was on those torn-out pages. Their values are not constructed around the abundance that once filled those holes. They accept the blank parts as though they've always been there."

Nollman pulls no punches in what he experiences on this trip including describing the constant difficult and loving give and take among the three soujourners.

This is a strong book and well worth the time to read it.

a wonderful story.......2005-03-30

This is a quite wonderful story.... a music of words.... ebbing and flowing between near-surreal and ultra-surreal with only a few intrusions of pure didactic rationalism. Buy it and read it.

Average customer rating:

a must for whale lovers
Beluga-A Farwell to Whales

Beluga: A Farewell to Whales
Pierre Beland
Manufacturer: The Lyons Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books

Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1558213988

Customer Reviews:

a must for whale lovers.......2003-03-06

"Beluga: A Farewell to Whales" is definitely one book I wish the title for was not so apt. In this work Pierre Beland does an amazing job in bringing to life a remarkable animal, the beluga whale, and in particular one population of this species, those that inhabit the immense St. Lawrence estuary in Canada. He also brings to life in a sad and sometimes sickening way the plight facing these animals, cetaceans that even though legally protected in the St. Lawrence since 1979 do not seem to be showing any signs of signifcant population increase.

Beland's book in part reads like the current popular medical and forensic autopsy shows, as the author, a dedicated and highly trained biologist, seeks to determine what is killing the whales of the St. Lawrence. Ready at a moment's notice - even on holidays, the dead of winter, or in the middle of the night - to retrieve whale corpses found ashore or adrift, Beland and his colleagues probe each whale carcass for the secrets of its life and its death. With dedication and skill worthy of a criminal forensic team they uncover the truth of each whale's demise, which are often untimely as young whales or even newborns are almost as common in his lab as much more mature adults.

What Beland finds is chilling. The whales appear to be dying from pollution, a case he boldy and definitely makes in this book. Examintion of the tissues from the deceased whales reveal staggering amounts of industrial and agricultural chemcials, including polychlorobiphenyls or PCBs, DDT, dieldrin, mirex, chloradane, and more. Even though some of these chemicals haven't been used in the region for decades, their use banned, they continue to wash into the St. Lawrence, a vast river system that drains almost the whole of the Great Lakes region. Beland writes that beluga whale milk in the estuary has been found to contain as much as ten parts per million of PCBs and six parts per million of DDT; a lot considering fish containing fives times fewer PCBs are considered unfit for human consumption. Ships carrying waste with more than fifty milligrams of PCBs per kilogram (or fifty parts per million) require a special transit permit; sadly, the average male beluga roaming these waters already has that concentration of PCBs in his blubber by age nine. Without suprise, this massive concentration of pollution within the whale's bodies has lead to a host of ailments. St. Lawrence belugas boast the dubious honor of the highest incidence of cancer in any marine mammal, perhaps even a higher rate than that found in man. Beland discusses not only the cancer but also the other health problems that are affecting this population of whale's very survival.

Beland clearly is in love with the beluga, a beautiful white whale that he writes wears that "peculiar beluga smile," a feature that gives the species "the look of an enigmatic wise man or, rather, of a happy imbelice." Remarkable animals, the author spends a great deal of time discusses the biology and behavior of belugas, particularly in a very concise and fact-filled appendix. Among the most vocal of all whale species, their repertoire is more varied than that of dolphins and extremely complex. Highly social creatures, they may surpass dolphins in their potential for social communication. They also according to Beland clearly surpass dolphins in terms of their echolocation capability; in fact this ability is so sophisticated that the belugas have been held for many years by both the United States and the former Soviet Union for studies to aid in the development of sonar technology. Beland discusses this at some length, including the remarkable story of a beluga that escaped from such a facility in the Ukraine and ended up in of all places the Turkish coast, very far indeed from the species usual haunts.

The book is also valuable for its history of the interaction between the beluga whales and the people of the St. Lawrence. Hunted for centuries - from the days of the earliest European settlers and by native peoples before that - Beland discusses the use of weir fisheries to trap whales and of the odd, bizarre, and cruel war fought against the beluga between 1928 and 1939 which even involved bombing the poor whales from the air! Also discussed is the history of the beluga in captivity, covering everything from the early futile attempts involving the likes of P.T. Barnum to today's more sophisiticated modern oceanairums, which although Beland has some misgivings about them, may play a vital role in trying to save the species.

Finally the book is a good one to get for those interested in the St. Lawrence estuary itself, an impressive body of water and ecosystem in its own right. As much a sea as a river, the St. Lawrence flows downstream only half the time, it main current reversed every six hours by the tide in a never ending war between the light brown river waters flowing from the Great Lakes and the green salt water alive with seaweed and all matter of marine animals. Home to a variety of seabirds, fishes, crustaceans, molluscs, and four species of seals - many of which are more charaterstic of arctic climates and are not found as far south anywhere else in the world - even without belugas the river and its life are remarkable and need protection.

Beluga-A Farwell to Whales.......2000-04-15

A charming, heartfelt book concerning a species not often written about. The sad toll the animal's own environment takes on it's health, and the dawning inevitability of the whale population's demise is shocking. The novel made me not only want to find out more, but it woke me up and made me want desperately to help.

Beluga Passage (Smithsonian Oceanic Collection)

Average customer rating:

Loved this book
Little Book with Big Story

Beluga Passage (Smithsonian Oceanic Collection)
Linda Lingemann
Manufacturer: Soundprints
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 1568993153

Customer Reviews:

Loved this book.......2006-01-28

I checked this out from the library when I was about four years old and I loved the cassette that came with it. If you can find it with the cassette, it is very cool. The whale sounds are awesome and the man who narates it really does it well.

Little Book with Big Story.......2001-02-04

In this attractively illustrated tale, beluga whales must swim south before the sea ices over. They face dangers from the ice as well as from hungry polar bears. We learn why beluga whales have been called "canary of the sea" and why the protruding forehead is useful. This is a simply told story, but young and old readers will learn a thing or two about these interesting creatures.

Average customer rating:

Beluga Whales (Animal Kingdom)
Julie Murray
Manufacturer: Buddy Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

General | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Animal Care & Pets | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Beluga Days: Tracking the Endangered White Whale

Average customer rating:

More than just a whale-lover's book
Trying to Save one Minor Species
Good content; multiple production issues of concern
Save the Whales!

Beluga Days: Tracking the Endangered White Whale
Nancy Lord
Manufacturer: Mountaineers Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Conservation | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

Endangered Species | Conservation | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1594850011

Book Description

Beluga Days is a wonderful evocation of the wilderness of coastal Alaska and the Native communities that still eat whale meat and depend on local foods. It is also a foray into the fascinating labyrinth of Alaskan culture, history, and politics, as the complex relationships in this unique state coalesce in a mad theater around a crisis--the decline of the beluga whales in Cook Inlet, an isolated and genetically distinct population.

Beyond its compelling characters and particulars, Lord's story offers readers a deeper understanding of the often uncomfortable, often rewarding, juxtaposition of humans and the natural world.

Customer Reviews:

More than just a whale-lover's book.......2007-09-05

As the title of this review points out, Beluga Days is a book that will appeal to a much broader readership than scientists in marine labs or whale researchers devoted to habitat conservation. I've never read a book about whales in my life, but this one gave me a chance to catch up to all those who have. I'll also say that I don't often read books that are strictly about animals, but perhaps that's why I liked this one so much.

Nancy Lord writes with the creativity and skill of a novelist or creative essayist, and Beluga Days, as a result, is no dry documentation. She manages to write both scientifically and intuitively, and brings investigative and relational research techniques with her into this multi-dimensional book. I found myself drawn into the stories of the players in this environmental drama, moved for the first time about a topic that had I had never before known about.

Lord paces the story well, answering questions I had just as I was about to ask them, and interspersing fact with feeling as often as her situations lent themselves. Throughout the book, she introduces "witnesses" for both sides of the Cook Inlet Beluga debate and gives all voices a fair chance to speak to her readers. This is probably one of the most balanced and un-biased environmental interest books I've read in a long time.

Nancy Lord has written not only a factual representation of the endangerment of the "White Whale," but a beautiful one, too. Her investment in the issue and time spent peering at all possible angles is readily apparent, and the picture she presents should be studied by any who claim similar interests.

On a smaller note, I found the hand-drawn maps at the front of the book very helpful while reading about various Alaskan locations, but would have appreciated even more visual aids like these throughout the book. Also, as another reviewer mentioned, there are several strange but obvious editing errors in the text that tended to distract me from the content of the chapters. But these complaints do little to mar the quality of the writing, or the "wholeness" of the story it presents.

Trying to Save one Minor Species.......2007-06-17

Nominally this book is about an endangered whale species. But in reality it goes much deeper than that. It is he story of trying to protect an endangered animal species. Ms. Lord goes into great detail in explaining that there are many interests involved in trying to put the Beluga whales under protection. The conflict to me is best summarized by the introduction of one character who is a spokesman for both the native hunters (who are blamed for driving the Belugas to the edge of extinction) and for a group of environmentalists who want to protect them. He can be quite honest in both camps.

That reflects the understanding that Ms. Lord brings to this book. There are two, or perhaps many sides to the story, and she brings them all out with understanding and some compassion.

Perhaps her strongest points are in dealing with the various Governmental agencies whose biggest problem seems to be not protecting the Beluga's but who is going to be in charge.

One minor complaint - I'd really like to see some pictures of these animals. The only picture in the book is the one on the front cover.

Good content; multiple production issues of concern.......2007-04-08

If you're looking for a good book to learn the science and sociology of studying belugas, monitoring subsistence hunting and more, this is a very good read. Lord doesn't automatically excoriate Alaskan oil companies, nor does she buy that every bit of Native lore, whether "Indian" or "Eskimo," about belugas is necessarily true.

Lord's connection with a variety of environmental groups, leaders of both strands of Native Americans, scientists from the National Marine Fisheries Service and more, mean that she doesn't offer, nor find, "easy" answers for the subpopulation of belugas in Alaska's Cook Inlet, either.

However, the number of people she talks to for this book leads directly to two of its shortcomings.

One is that it doesn't have an index.

Two is no pictures.

Three is a mechanical/copy editing gripe. A lot of long dashes dropped out of copy, and the two words separated by the long dashes ran together. In one or two other cases, two words ran together where it doesn't appear a long dash was missing.

This book was on the 4/5 star border, probably, overall. The first two omissions definitely move it to 4-star range. The mechanical/copy error came close to moving it another notch lower, due to its frequency.

That said, the book would be more helpful with an index.

Save the Whales!.......2007-03-26

The title of this review is something of a cliche. Whales have gone from being considered a natural resource to an animal that receives very favorable treatment in the popular press. At least in the United States popular sentiment has turned against hunting of these animals. Today, commercial whaling operations employ tour guides, not harponists. Whale watching has replaced whale hunting. But understanding these creatures and the challenges they face, as well as deciding how best to help them, remain strikingly difficult issues. 'Beluga Days,' by Nancy Lord, discusses many of these issues in detail as she focuses on a small genetically distinct set of Beluga Whales and the many obstacles to their survival.

Nancy Lord is a Cook Inlet salmon fisherman living near Anchorage, Alaska. Like many others, she became entranced by the small Beluga (white) Whales which shared the salmon she harvested. In the 1990s, she also began to notice a sharp decline in their numbers, observations that were borne out by scientific surveys of the population. She then threw herself into conservation efforts only to discover that the issues and motivations of various parties involved varied widely. The population decline, it seems, was due primarily to native subsistence hunting. But the native Alaskan hunters, who were themselves subdivided into those with Eskimo and non-Eskimo heritage, were understandably upset at the prospect of acknowledging their mismanagement of a communal resource. Moreover, they were unwilling to give up yet another one of their traditional rights. Other participants also had different motives. In the book we meet many of them: George Hayden, the old fisherman who fondly recalls the "Beluga Days" when the town would celebrate a largely ceremonial hunt; Kris Balliet, a leader in the movement to get the Beluga Whales classified as an endangered species, but someone who frequently made mistakes in dealing with local Alaskans; oil representative Judy Brady, passionate about the Belugas and frustrated by the blame heaped (without scientific justification in this instance) on her industry; and Joel Blatchford, the Inupiat Eskimo who was simultaneously a spokesman for the hunters and for an endangered species listing. Each of these people, and many others, receive a sympathetic portrait in Lord's book. As she writes about these people it becomes clear that the preservation of Beluga Whales, and the best means of doing so, is a multifaceted issue.

If the supporters of preservation had multiple agendas, the government to whom they were appealing had only one: proper political procedure. The book describes in agonizing detail how slowly both the state and federal government agencies moved even as the Beluga population declined towards critical numbers. Courtroom debates went on at length, various agencies fought over jurisdiction, and aside from a "depleted" listing among marine animals, little was accomplished. This was immensely frustrating for all concerned, and Lord herself highlights part of the problem in her book. Citing Garret Hardin, she notes the Beluga's had become a "tragedy" of the commons. Lacking any form of established property rights, it was easy to hunt them to extinction, but difficult to preserve them. Lord correctly notes that such property rights can be communal instead of individual, but by the 1990s, tribal communal controls had broken down at Cook's Inlet. And it turns out, government agencies were a poor alternative. If nothing else, this book points to the need for serious reform in protecting endangered species.

But at the end of the book, Lord raises a far more important issue. Should we even try to save the whales at all? What difference would it really make? These are almost heretical questions for an environmentalist, but Lord gives them a fair hearing nonetheless. After all, extinction is a natural part of evolution's paradigm. Arguing that "humans cause extinction" is simply silly, because it presupposes that humans are not a part of nature, a claim that no evolutionary biologist would make. On a more practical level, Lord askes whether Belugas will ever again be a significant part of a subsistence diet. She concludes, probably not. Native populations have grown and it is unlikely that Belugas will ever offer more than a token tie to their past even should the species survive. And what of the rest of us? Will those of us who have never watched the Beluga Whales in Cook Inlet miss them when they are gone? Lord attempts to answer these questions as best she can. Some frankly do not admit to easy answers. She wants to assert a moral basis for preservation, a claim that all Belugas, even those taken in traditional hunts, are important. But on what basis? Ultimately, the solution lies in an older, spiritual paradigm. We are the caretakers of the earth, and if we want to watch Belugas, we must find a way to do so. Is this view anthrocentric? Yes, emphatically so. Is it unscientific? Probably. But it has a hope of working. And the proof lies in the new preface to the 2007 edition of this remarkable book. There we find that in 2006, for the first time in years, families lined up on the Turnagain Arm of Cook Inlet to watch a large pod of Beluga Whales. We as a society are richer for it.

If you have even the slightest interest in conservation issues, by all means get this book. Lord is an excellent writer and her deeply personal journal of discovery makes for fascinating reading. This is by far one of the best nature books to appear in this decade.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books