Billy Twitters and His Blue Whale Problem

Only about half of the fun that used to be in this book is still there. Story is still cute but all the extra stuff that was on the cover and so forth is gone.

I got this for my 2.5-year-old, because she is obsessed with whales at the moment. I bought almost every semi-age-appropriate whale book on Amazon (there aren't as many as you'd think). I have to admit that the illustrations in this book are pretty incredible; they're definitely the best part. But the story itself leaves something to be desired (in my opinion), at least for younger kids. There are depictions of bullying and other kids generally being mean to each other, without any underlying message of "...and that's a bad way to act." The book is page after page of people being mean or unsympathetic to the main character (including his parents), or his life being miserable in some way, until he is ready to run away. And then he decides to move into the "stinky, sweaty fish, gym sock smelling" whale's mouth to escape his problems. I'm sorry to say that I actually hid this book from my daughter after reading it several times!The good parts: 1) the illustrations, like I said above 2) the book is definitely educational and taught my daughter a number of facts about whales 3) she loved it!!! But I was uncomfortable every time I read it to her. If she were 8 and not 2 that might be different.

I love Mac's books. We are die hard fans in my house and this book is one of our favorites. My 2.5 yr old loves it and asks to read it almost every night. The characters are interesting and if you are creative you can come up with some pretty funny voices for them. I sometimes have to hide the book as I get a bit sick of it every night! One issue: some of the language in the book is for older kids so I tend to skip over a couple of words and will do so until my daughter is older. Nothing crazy but just like the word "stupid" which I don't want to introduce into my house just yet.

This was a gift to a co-worker's grandson who has considered me to be his personal playmate ever since he first met me about 4 years ago. He is now 8 and I periodically find a book or something for him. Per his grandma... his reaction to the book was... "A whale??!!" and he repeated that a few times. He has been making his mom and grandmom read it to him almost everynight. So I am giving this 5 stars. I believe he will be taking this to school to share like he did Telephone, which I will also give 5 stars to. Keep them coming Mac, you "get" kids!!

Hilarious book. Heard about it on an NPR story and bought it for the mail away whale program, which we sent off for and still hadn't received before we moved away six months later... even so, Mac Barnett is brilliant and we are now fans of his and collecting his books. The details are wonderful (like the "FedUp" worldwide punishment delivery truck made o resemble a FedEx truck) and the story is real and gritty without conveying a message I wouldn't approve of. This is my kind of kids' book and my kid loves it too.

What a great little story! The kids got a kick out of the idea that a kid would be punished for not cleaning his room by being given a blue whale to take care of by his parents! Adam Rex has a real winner here, and the pictures are fantastic. The little boy hauling the blue whale down the block to school on a skateboard behind his bike is a scream. The author includes real facts about blue whales to further impress the readers about the whale's true size in relation to people, giant prehistoric sharks and an apatosaurus really wowed my audience. They liked the ending, too and the post-story discussion was quite lively.

We buy lots of books for our son and daughter. We buy lots of Mac Barnett books as well. They love it. We love it. Billy Twitters may have his problems, but he won't hear them from us!

This book is okay. My son loves whales. The premise is kind of strange.

Grandson loved this book illustrations wonderful

Great product

Arrived as described. Thank you.

Love it

Odd, mostly uninteresting, story and odd illustrations.