Melissa Stewart
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Whale Fall

Exploring an Ocean-Floor Ecosystem

Whale Fall

by Melis­sa Stewart

illus by Rob Dunlavey

Ran­dom House Stu­dio, 2023

for ages 6 to 10

ISBN 978–0‑593–38060‑4

Pur­chase this book at your local inde­pen­dent book­seller or Amazon.com.

Gor­geous painter­ly art and gen­tle, lyri­cal prose com­bine to bring a lit­tle-known, deep-sea ecosys­tem to life for young read­ers. Meet the fas­ci­nat­ing com­mu­ni­ty of crea­tures, from amphipods and zom­bie worms to squat lob­sters and sea pigs, that depends on a decay­ing whale for shel­ter and sus­te­nance for up to 50 years.

Take a look at this record­ed pre­sen­ta­tion fea­tur­ing Melis­sa and illus­tra­tor Rob Dunlavey on the Inno­va­tion Showcase.

In this episode of the Children’s Book Pod­cast, Melis­sa dis­cuss­es Whale Fall with host Matthew Winner.

Honors and Awards

  • Austin Pub­lic Library (TX) Rec­om­mend­ed Book
  • ALA Notable Children’s Book
  • Austin Pub­lic Library (TX) Rec­om­mend­ed Book
  • Bank Street Col­lege of Edu­ca­tion Best Book of the Year
  • Col­by Sharp’s Favorite Books of 2023
  • Coop­er­a­tive Children’s Book Cen­ter Choic­es List
  • Imag­i­na­tion Soup’s 35 Best Non­fic­tion Books for Kids 
  • Mr. Schu’s Favorite Books of 2023 
  • Nation­al Sci­ence Teach­ing Asso­ci­a­tion Out­stand­ing Sci­ence Trade Book
  • Nat­ur­al His­to­ry Rec­om­mend­ed Gifts for Bud­ding Scientists 
  • Nerdy Book Club Award for Non­fic­tion Pic­ture Books 
  • New York Pub­lic Library Best Books for Kids
  • Non­fic­tion Detec­tives Best STEM Books for Kids 
  • Penn­syl­va­nia Key­stone to Read­ing Ele­men­tary Book Award Nominee
  • Penn­syl­va­nia Young Read­er’s Choice Nominee
  • Texas Topaz Non­fic­tion Read­ing List

Reviews

“[We] are colos­sal fans of Melis­sa Stew­art. As a non­fic­tion writer, her tal­ent to bring facts to life with­out over­whelm­ing read­ers us a true gift. She makes our job as librar­i­ans eas­i­er because we can trust the book we hand a curi­ous read­er. We know they will be able to absorb the infor­ma­tion while also just enjoy­ing the nar­ra­tive.” (The Non­fic­tion Detec­tives)

“A beau­ti­ful­ly illus­trat­ed non­fic­tion look at a whale fall told in vivid and lyri­cal lan­guage.” (KIDS­book­shelf)

“This love­ly pic­ture book [fea­tures] effec­tive descrip­tive lan­guage sup­port­ed by per­fect­ly aligned mixed media illus­tra­tions in watery shades of blues and greens that span fac­ing spreads… The rich back mat­ter includes addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion about whale falls, a bib­li­og­ra­phy, sources for fur­ther explo­ration, and basic infor­ma­tion about all 22 ani­mals men­tioned in the text … makes a great read-aloud.” (Book­list)

“When a whale dies, its body sinks to the ocean floor, but that’s not the end of its use­ful life. For the next 50 years, it will con­tin­ue to pro­vide nour­ish­ment to a series of deep-sea crea­tures. Stew­art takes her read­ers 5,000 feet down into the East Pacif­ic Ocean to watch the pro­ces­sion of scav­engers who will feast on the remains of a 70,000-pound gray whale — and some­times each oth­er … It’s a thriv­ing new seafloor ecosys­tem. The exem­plary back­mat­ter tells us that sci­en­tists have iden­ti­fied over 500 species that are in some way con­nect­ed to a whale fall. The author has cho­sen exam­ples with names — ‘snub­nose eelpouts,’ ‘sea pigs,’ ‘blob sculpin’ — that delight. The smooth­ly writ­ten text is set direct­ly on evoca­tive blue-toned under­wa­ter scenes that make good use of light and tex­ture. … An intrigu­ing and effec­tive look at an unfa­mil­iar world, well suit­ed for read­ing aloud.” (Kirkus Reviews) 

Behind the Book

“In 2019, I stum­bled upon an arti­cle about zom­bie worms, aka bone-eat­ing snot flower worms, while writ­ing a book called Ick! Delight­ful­ly, Dis­gust­ing Ani­mals Din­ners, Dwellings, and Defens­es. I includ­ed some infor­ma­tion about them in the Dwellings sec­tion of that book (dozens of tiny males live inside each female), but I knew I want­ed to write more about these unusu­al marine worms one day. So I tacked the arti­cle to my Idea Board as a reminder.

“Some­times notes and arti­cles stay on my Idea Board for a long time, but when the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic struck in 2020, all my school vis­its were can­celled and I had plen­ty of time for research. As I began read­ing more about zom­bie worms, my mind was blown. I was com­plete­ly cap­ti­vat­ed by the incred­i­ble col­lec­tion of crit­ters that live in, on, and around a whale fall. I knew I had to write a book about them.

“I often spend years try­ing to find just the right struc­ture for a book, but in this case, I knew imme­di­ate­ly that a chrono­log­i­cal sequence struc­ture would be the per­fect choice. This allowed me to write the book in just a few months.

“My cri­tique group loved the man­u­script, and encour­aged me to send it out right away. Often, it can take many months to hear back from edi­tors, but this time, I heard back the very next day. She loved the book and want­ed to acquire it right away. I was thrilled.

“And when she sent me sam­ples of Rob Dunlavey’s stun­ning art­work, I was even more excit­ed. I knew he was the per­fect artist to illus­trate the book.”

Whale Fall

by Melis­sa Stewart

illus by Rob Dunlavey

Ran­dom House Stu­dio, 2023

for ages 6 to 10

ISBN 978–0‑593–38060‑4

Pur­chase this book at your local inde­pen­dent book­seller or Amazon.com.

Book Extensions

READ ALOUD GUIDE

PODCAST INTERVIEW

VIDEO INTERVIEW
with illus­tra­tor Rob Donleavy