The snail and the whale are able to refloat and swim safely away from the villagers, who wave and cheer them on. The school's children and teacher immediately fetch the emergency services, and the local people and fire department help to keep the abandoned whale wet until the tide finally turns. In an effort to help her friend, the snail herself crawls to a nearby school in the bay, and writes ' Save The Whale!' in her slimy trail on the blackboard. The aquatic duo see many sights along their way until one sunny summer's morning, the humpback whale, confused by the sound of a group of racing speedboats, swims into a bay and is left beached by the retreating tide. Together they go on a world-wide ocean journey, past icebergs and volcanoes, sharks and penguins until the snail feels very small in the vastness of the world. After she writes an advert for a ' lift wanted around the world' using her snail trail, a kind humpback whale arrives one moonlit night and offers to take her along on his travels. On a smooth black rock by the docks lives a flock of sea snails, of which one longs to see the big, wide world a feeling her rock-bound compatriots cannot understand. In 2019, a short film based on the book was released.ĭonaldson has said that it is one of her favourite books, due to its similarity in rhyming style to the works of Edward Lear, of which she was fond of as a child. The Snail and the Whale has also been adapted into an unabridged audiobook, a stage play and translated into British Sign Language. It won the 2004 Early Years award for the best pre-school book, the 2005 Blue Peter award for Best Book to Read Aloud, and the 2007 Giverny award for Best Science Picture Book. The Snail and the Whale is a 2003 children's picture book written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler.

Snail the whale