Review of The Whaler's Daughter
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Wendy Barnes
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Review of The Whaler's Daughter
[Following is a volunteer review of "The Whaler's Daughter" by Jerry Mikorenda.]
I have just finished reading The Whaler's Daughter which was written by Jerry Mikorenda. This is a children’s book about early Australian Settlers who worked in a whaling station. The main character in the story is Savannah, a young girl of 12 years of age. Savannah befriends a young Aboriginal boy whom she nicknames Figgie as she is unable to pronounce his name properly. The story goes on to tell us how a pod of killer whales helps assist the whale hunters in their hunts and the bond which forms between the whales and Savannah.
Jerry has claimed this to book to be written for children. I struggled to finish reading this book due to the overuse of and inappropriate use of Australian slang. I think that children would find this book extremely hard to follow and would struggle to get through it. I read other reviews on this title and I am unable to agree with some of them.
A lot of the words Jerry used did not fit in with what he was writing about and caused the writing to make no sense. An example of this can be found on page 149 where Jerry has written “That was as strewth as strewth gets, mate!” I yelled. The simplicity of the story might make it appropriate for children, but the chopping and changing of scenarios made it hard to follow. I also question the meaning of some of the words he used and whether they were appropriate for this story. I also feel that if the author is going to use words which readers struggle to know the meaning of, he should put it at the bottom of each page. An example of this is when the author writes “They’re running an oikomiryou,” I said, in disbelief. I had to look the word up and it means a drive hunt when hunting Orcas.
I rate this book 2 out of 4 stars. I gave The Whaler's Daughter this rating as I found it very hard to read and to even want to finish the whole book. I struggled through but found it did not improve the further I read. The overuse of Australian slang and the nature of the story, chopping and changing so frequently was also factored into this rating. There were a few errors but mostly the grammatically incorrect use of words I struggled with.
Unfortunately, the only good things I have to say about The Whaler’s Daughter is that it was only 272 pages in length, and I noticed very few spelling mistakes. I think that the author had a great idea for his story but got lost in the telling of it. I did appreciate that Savannah did come to see the error of their ways when she was a part of the crew in her first whale killing.
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The Whaler's Daughter
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
I have just finished reading The Whaler's Daughter which was written by Jerry Mikorenda. This is a children’s book about early Australian Settlers who worked in a whaling station. The main character in the story is Savannah, a young girl of 12 years of age. Savannah befriends a young Aboriginal boy whom she nicknames Figgie as she is unable to pronounce his name properly. The story goes on to tell us how a pod of killer whales helps assist the whale hunters in their hunts and the bond which forms between the whales and Savannah.
Jerry has claimed this to book to be written for children. I struggled to finish reading this book due to the overuse of and inappropriate use of Australian slang. I think that children would find this book extremely hard to follow and would struggle to get through it. I read other reviews on this title and I am unable to agree with some of them.
A lot of the words Jerry used did not fit in with what he was writing about and caused the writing to make no sense. An example of this can be found on page 149 where Jerry has written “That was as strewth as strewth gets, mate!” I yelled. The simplicity of the story might make it appropriate for children, but the chopping and changing of scenarios made it hard to follow. I also question the meaning of some of the words he used and whether they were appropriate for this story. I also feel that if the author is going to use words which readers struggle to know the meaning of, he should put it at the bottom of each page. An example of this is when the author writes “They’re running an oikomiryou,” I said, in disbelief. I had to look the word up and it means a drive hunt when hunting Orcas.
I rate this book 2 out of 4 stars. I gave The Whaler's Daughter this rating as I found it very hard to read and to even want to finish the whole book. I struggled through but found it did not improve the further I read. The overuse of Australian slang and the nature of the story, chopping and changing so frequently was also factored into this rating. There were a few errors but mostly the grammatically incorrect use of words I struggled with.
Unfortunately, the only good things I have to say about The Whaler’s Daughter is that it was only 272 pages in length, and I noticed very few spelling mistakes. I think that the author had a great idea for his story but got lost in the telling of it. I did appreciate that Savannah did come to see the error of their ways when she was a part of the crew in her first whale killing.
******
The Whaler's Daughter
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: A Bloody Book by Chris Bowen
