Maya & Filippo Look for Whales

by Alinka Rutkowska, Konrad Checinski (Illustrations)

"This book will encourage children to travel, discover new things, and be adventurous. "

Rating: 5.0 stars from Readers' Favorite Reviews.

Embark on an exciting adventure with Maya and Filippo as they travel around the globe on board the Fun Princess, a cruise ship full of surprises. Discover their fascinating ports of call, join them in activities at sea and explore the remarkable world they create for themselves through their thoughts and feelings.

Maya and Filippo visit Ketchikan in Alaska. They go to the Totem Pole Park and learn about the Salmon Chief. They explore Creek Street and watch salmon run upstream. But all Maya wants is to see a whale. The kids find an unusual way to try to make her dream come true. But will it work?

26 pages, Paperback

First published April 10, 2014

About the author

Hi, I'm Alinka Rutkowska and I'm an award-winning and best-selling author and coach.



I've been featured on Fox Business Network, Examiner, She Knows, She Writes, Blog Talk Radio, The Writer’s Life and many more.

I'm giving away presents!

READERS: Go to http://alinkarutkowska.com and get one of my children's books for free!

AUTHORS: Go to http://alinkarutkowska.com/authors-home/ and get my ebook "200 Book Marketing Tips" for free!

Reviews

[Gisela Hausmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an enchanting little book with more than one lesson playfully woven into the story. To begin with, sister and brother are best friends. That’s a wonderful positive reinforcement! Together with their parents they travel the world by ship. In this book they arrive in Alaska. Very cleverly the author tells about Alaska, readers and listeners can learn facts playfully, like Indians used to live in Alaska. These Indians carved beautiful totem poles. Little Filippo wants to see a whale, and he keeps pushing his agenda. Will he get to see one? At the Saxman Indian Village Filippo learns a big lesson, which will help him to get what he wants.

This lesson is what makes this children’s’ book special, young readers can learn that “wanting” alone is not going to get them what they want to experience.

I was also enchanted with the drawings. The two children Maya and Filippo are drawn in a modern style, which allows readers to relate to them; I also loved mom’s miniskirts. This is not some stuck up mom, but a modern mom, like every child wants his mom to be. And then there is dad, in his captain uniform, and the family cat, Otello, of course.

The book is one out of a series of nine, I have no doubt, children will love the series. The book creates a feeling of happiness with its smiling characters, smiling whales, fish, and native Americans. The drawings also feature adorable details, like a poster “I love my cat” on the wall. More positive values are related in a subtle manner. All in all “Maya & Filippo Look for Whales” relates values every parent wants to see.

5 stars – happy readers will follow.

[Melanie Adkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maya and Filippo are brother and sister. They travel the world with their parents in the Fun Princess. When they dock in Alaska's first city, the only thing they want to do is look for whales. Their parents find many educational and fun things for them to do, but none include looking for whales. Just as they feel they are to be disappointed, something wonderful happens.

This book will remind you of the littles in your life. It's cute, educational and a fun read for the kids. I like these kinds of books. Using fun characters to teach lessons to our own children. It makes it easier to get the point across. You'll want to check out all of their books.

I found no issues with this one.

I gave this one 5 cheers out of 5 because it's a wonderful tool to teach littles with. ~Copy of book provided by author in exchange for a fair review~

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this adventure, siblings Maya and Filippo are sailing in Alaskan waters aboard the "Fun Princess" in search of further knowledge and experiences. They make landfall in Saxman Native Village where they see and learn about totem poles. They find out that they could also be called "story poles" for their purpose is to tell stories about native myths.
After learning this intriguing fact, Maya & Filippo then get on a smaller boat and go back out on the ocean in the hope of seeing a whale. Their wishes are granted when a mighty humpback whale bursts out of the water. Their day closes with Maya understanding that the first step in having something is to feel that it is possible.
This book is written at the level of the second grader and describes some of the customs of Native Alaskans as well as the excitement of seeing a whale surface. Children can relate to Maya & Filippo and the information on totem poles is an excellent multicultural element. The opportunity to see a whale break the surface of the ocean is something that all people find exciting and reading about it is a nice consolation prize.
This book was made available for free for review purposes and this review was posted on Amazon.

[Marjorie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Given To Me For An Honest Review


Maya & Filippo Look for Whales by Alinka Rutkowska is a must read for your child. It is about a brother and sister who are also best friends. They travel around the world with their parents in a ship. One day they find themselves in Alaska. While there they learn many fun and playful facts about Alaska and about the Indians that were in Alaska. They want to see a whale. Filippo really wants to see a whale. A lesson that they learned here was wanting something isn't going to let it happen. There are positive messages throughout. This book shows many values that many parents would like to see in their children. The illustrations are so cute and they have great details. The colors are real good too. Along with this book comes a coloring book. This gives your child a chance to "re-read" the book their way with the illustrations and their choice of colors. I enjoyed reading this book so much. I gave this book 5 stars but it deserves more. I highly recommend this book to everyone. I look forward to more from Alinka Rutkowska.

[Eric Jolly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book this evening with my children. I think their opinion is probably more important than mine, on well, a kids' book.

Both children very much liked taking taking the cruise ship to Ketchikan, the first Alaskan city as one travels from the south. My son was fascinated with a number of pages on Totem Poles -- my daughter really liked the sighting of whales. I was personally a fan of Maya and Filippo who are brother and sister (and best friends).

The overall message that there is joy when you can feel the feeling of having what you want, the thing that you want is not far away is a good lesson.

Side note, the kids loved the colorful pictures and illustrations. When asked if there was anything they didn't like about the story, they both said nothing --- they liked the story very much!

I look forward to reading more stories by Alinka Rutkowska featuring Maya & Filippo.

[Fiona Sambrook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great story aimed and children. Wonderful way to help educate your children through this amazing colorful book. Easy to read to the children and written at just the right level of fun and fact. Love the fact the book has a quiz for them to answer at the end.