Winter's Tail: How One Little Dolphin Learned to Swim Again

Book Title: Winter’s Tail: How One Little Dolphin Learned to Swim Again

Author(s): Juliana Hatkoff, Isabella Hatkoff, and Craig Hatkoff

Illustrator/Photographer/Artist: Photographs from various sources

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Copyright Date: 2009

Genre: Nonfiction picturebook

Brief Annotation: Winter’s Tail tells the incredible and true story about a dolphin who lost her tail in a crab trap and is rescued and sent to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Florida. She learns to swim again with the help of her trainers, but it soon becomes clear that Winter is further damaging her spine by using a back and forth motion rather than an up and down motion. A team of experts comes together to help design and create a prosthetic tail for Winter. The prosthetic tail works wonderfully, and Winter gains fans and admirers who see her a champion, a friend, and as a source of inspiration.

Your Rating (1-5) and why: 5—This is a truly inspiring story told at a level that young readers and listeners will enjoy and understand. Children and adults both can relate to Winter’s struggles and achievements, and children with disabilities, in particular, appreciate the story of how Winter learned to swim again, as expressed in the last section of the book. Winter’s Tail features actual photographs of her journey and rehabilitation, which enhances the text and adds to the overall story.

Readers who will like this book: Children who have disabilities or have ever worried about being different; kids who enjoy nonfiction stories about animals, especially dolphins; readers who enjoyed any of the authors’ other books about a rescued hippo, polar bear, and mountain gorilla; anyone who likes stories about resiliency and perseverance.

Teaching Strategy from Tompkins or Yopp & Yopp: Sketch to Sketch. Winter’s Tail evokes many emotions from readers, including anger at the people who set the crab trap, sadness when Winter’s tail begins flaking away, hope as we wait to see whether the prosthetic tail will work, and both happiness and relief when it does. The Sketch to Sketch strategy helps “teachers support students in thinking about, making connections to, elaborating on, and interpreting a text” in a nonlinguistic manner (p. 108). Students listen to a section of the book and then are given time to sketch what the passage makes them think about or how it makes them feel. Some students may draw more concrete sketches, such as the dolphin being transported to the aquarium by van, while others may draw more abstract ideas, like how the dolphin felt at the time of the rescue. Students should be encouraged to share their thoughts and sketches in small groups or as a class.

Question to ask about this book before a read aloud: Have you ever had to overcome a disadvantage to do what your friends could do? How did it make you feel when you either did or did not accomplish your goal? What characteristics do you need to keep trying again and again until you succeed?

Optional, but noted as extra effort:

1. Interest Level (age): K-3

2. Grade Level Equivalent (grade): 6.6

3. List awards: Junior Library Guild Selection

4. Book trailer: http://wellreadchild.blogspot.com/2009/09/winters-tail-how-one-little-dolphin.html