Surf War!: A Folktale from the Marshall Islands

Beautifully illustrated picture book assists in telling the story of Surf War! by Margaret Read MacDonald (I would love to have her middle name!). The story is simple, the whales and the sandpipers that inhabit the land are trying to decide if there are more whales than birds or more sandpipers than whales of the sea. This causes them to gather all of the whales and the whales cousins together; as well as all sandpipers and sandpipers cousins together. Because of the vastness of all the whales in the sea and the sandpipers on the beach, it was difficult to tell.So, the whales and sandpipers decided to wreak havoc on one another; this only created a nightmare for all of them as they were destroying their home. Read the story, to find out of how the whales and the sandpipers solved their unfortunate conflict.What a glorious story of citizenship and the ability to live with one another. This book would be a great addition to a Social Studies unit to introduce being a citizen and how society is able to collaborate in order to live harmoniously together.

Ok so I know you are not supposed to judge a book by its cover but when I saw this on *Netgalley I fell in love with the cover and knew I wanted to read it. I mean come on how cute does that whale look?Surf Wars is the story of a sandpiper and whale. The two boast back and forth to each other about who is better and whom there are more of. Soon every whale and seabird cousin shows up. In their fight the other creatures who live there start to struggle to survive. Can sandpiper and whale make up in time to save what was once their beautiful home?Ok so it goes without saying that my favorite part of this book was the illustrations. They were amazing. The story itself was actually not too bad and in its own way showed the consequences of over crowding and thinking that you can rule over something like the sea without the responsibilities that come with it.My son enjoyed the story but he couldn't understand the fighting between the two. I think this has more to do with my son than to do with the book itself. This is just one of those little hiccups that comes with his learning disabilities. But overall he liked the book even if he couldn't understand parts of it.When I asked him how many stars he thought this was he told me 5. I agree this is a 5 out of 5 star book.*I received a free copy of this ebook from Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion**This book was read with my special needs son who is severely learning disabled. The review reflects not only my opinion but his as well

Surf War is based on a folktale from the Marshall Islands. The book goes exactly as the title suggests. There is a surf war between the Whales of the ocean and the Sandpipers of the island. The whale and sandpiper argue about whether there are more of each animal. So, both call to their like species and neither can tell which has more. The whales decide they will eat up the island so the birds can't stay and the birds decide to drink up the water for the same reason. When the birds realize they are causing their food supply of small sea creatures to die they put the water back and the whales decide to as well. They now believe that their home- the ocean should be at peace."Such a silly thing to start a war."I thought that the illustrations were brilliant and child friendly. The idea that war comes from anger and isn't a solution is, in my opinion, one of the best ideas for a children's book!I was provided a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Title: Surf War! - A Folktale from the Marshall IslandsAuthor: Margaret Read MacDonaldIllustrator: Geraldo ValerioPublisher: August House/Little FolkPublished: 32ISBN: 9780874838893Pages: 32Genre: Children's FictionTags: Conflict, FriendshipsOverall Rating: 5.0 ExcellentReviewed For: NightGalleyReviewer: DelAnneWhat is worth going to war over? Land? Food? Opinions? All three could be right, but under what conditions? One day a small sandpiper was out eating small minnows from the ocean when a very large whale came and saw what the sandpiper was doing and yelled at the sandpiper to stop! When the sandpiper refused an argument started over who there were more of, sandpipers or whales, the winner would have claim to the island and the ocean around it. Calling in their brothers and sisters and cousins there were so many they could not tell who had more. Then each side decide to make it impossible for the other side to survive.How far are they willing to go to win? Will they harm themselves just to prove a point? This is a fantastic children's story to teach young readers that although something looks like it is most important to be right about, it is easy to get caught up and go too far. It shows that compromise could be just the answer. Also just because your are different doesn't mean you can not get along and become friends.Pick up a copy to share with your young reader today.