Wanda Walfisch

by Davide Calì, Sonja Bougaeva (Illustrator), Claudia Steinitz (Übersetzer)

Immer wenn Wanda ins Wasser springt, lachen die anderen. »Ich bin zu schwer zum Schwimmen«, sagt Wanda. »Nein«, sagt der Schwimmlehrer, »du musst nur denken, was du sein möchtest!« Wanda probiert es aus, und der Trick funktioniert. Sie denkt Känguru und springt im Turnunterricht ganz hoch. Sie denkt Hase und mag sogar Karotten. Und beim nächsten Schwimmunterricht denkt Wanda sich leicht. Sie schwimmt wie ein Hai, eine Sardine, gar wie ein Segelboot und ein Kajak. Aber wagt sie sich auch vom Sprungturm? Davide Calìs unbeschwerte Geschichte knüpft an kindliche Erfahrungen an; im Wasser fühlt sich die mollige Wanda wohl. Sie gewinnt Selbstvertrauen durch Fantasie und Vorstellungskraft. Und Sonja Bougaeva malt Wanda von Seite zu Seite kecker.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Fiction, Sports, Storytime, Mental Health, Disability

28 pages, Hardcover

First published February 25, 2010

About the author

Davide Calì is a Swiss-born Italian writer of picture books and graphic novels, primarily for children and young adults. He lives in Italy. His work has been published in twenty-five countries and translated into many languages.

Reviews

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Abigail hates to swim. She always tries to be the last in the line, because she knows what is coming. When she dives in her body, which she sees large, big, and heavy, makes a huge wave, and everybody starts saying "Abigail is a whale!". Oh, how she hates to swim!
Things changes the day her swimming teacher tells her that "we are what we think", and that if she wants to swim light, she has to think light. Abigail decides to give it a try, and actually when she thinks water she feels liquid, and she is not scared anymore when she thinks giant. Next Wednesday is time to try it in the pool. Can Abigail do it?

The story has an interesting approach to the topic of bullying. We don't have to accept what others say about us as the truth. It is much more important the way we feel about ourselves. Abigail is adorable, and she looks beautiful in these amazing illustrations. My 3 years old son wanted to look a thousand times to the picture of Abigail swimming underwater, and I can perfectly see why. It just makes you feel like swimming! Abigail learns what a great swimmer she can be when she just think that this is possible, and this is a wonderful message. She can also be a whale if she feels like splashing some naughty kids. :)

I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Find more children's book reviews in Reviews in Chalk

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although I liked the message about the power of positive thinking, it really fell short for me in that the other kids (and the reader) aren't given any lesson about why being a fatphobic poop isn't OK in the first place.

[Elisabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this picture book, but I have too many problems with it. Abigail is a bit chunky, but she suffers through swim class every week. She hates it, partially because "all the other kids teased her, saying, 'Abigail is a whale!'" Her swim teacher is pretty obtuse and asks her, "What's wrong, Abigail? Don't you like swimming?" Of course she doesn't like to swim!! You sit there and watch her get bullied and teased every week!! The book redeems itself slightly when the teacher suggests a positive thinking exercise, which helps Abigail grow some self-confidence. The illustrations are completely lovely. I just can't get over a teacher who ignores bullying. Poor Abigail.

[Jillian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book about Abigail who is made fun of at swim class for being fat so she thinks she's too heavy to swim. But her coach helps her see that positive self talk/thinking can change perspective and help us see ourselves in the way we think. I was left unsatisfied by the ending because although Abigail proves the other kids wrong when they think she won't go off the diving board, and she reclaims the word that was used against her, we don't see anything happen to address the bullying/name-calling. Would make for good conversation in the classroom though. Soft illustrations add character to the story. I would rather see something with consequences & no centering the negative term.

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tiene una gama de colores muy bonitos, especialmente el aguamarina que es uno de mis favoritos.

La historia es sobre una niña obesa que va a clases de natación. Cuando salta a la piscina, salpica mucha agua. Sus compañeros le dicen que es una ballena. Malena se siente muy mal, pero después recibe un consejo sobre la vida: somos lo que creemos que somos.

Así es como Malena aprende a imaginar ser gigante, ave, pez... y también ballena, para aprender a quererse un poquito más.

[Runa]

Hm. I'm glad to see a book featuring a heavier child as the MC so more kids can see themselves in the stories they read.

But I don't love that the onus to change her thinking was on her. Why is it always on the bullied to solve problems the bullies create? Make them change their thinking. This kid just wants to swim in peace, like, why is the swim coach standing right there while the other kids tease her, doing absolutely nothing?

I'm really ticked off that while authors have finally decided to start addressing difficult topics children struggle with, they almost always end up placing the blame or ~cognitive restructuring work~ on the child who is marginalized. Do better, kidlit world.

[Karen R · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a cute story, beautifully illustrated, with a hopeful message!
"You are what you think" can apply to adults too, helping people overcome their fears and difficult situations. I loved how Abigail rose above the bullying, kicking out the negative image with the positive, gaining new self confidence. She's a brave and beautiful example for everyone.
Recommend for younger children and up. Made me want to stand up and cheer, "Go Abigail!"
4.5 stars

(An e-book copy was provided by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.)

[Sandra]

Ambivalent on this one. I loved the positivity, annoyed that the bullying isn't addressed. I get that the focus is on Abigail and not the other kids, but even looking at it that way the swim teacher being obtuse about why she hates swimming gets me.

[Karen]

I like where this was going, but I would have liked to have seen the bullying addressed.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Might be a bit wordy for a story time, but this is a great book about challenging negative thinking and loving yourself as you are! Abigail hates swim class because the other kids call her a whale when she jumps in a makes a big splash. When she tells her swim teacher she's too big and heavy to swim well, he tells her to "think light."

All week Abigail practices thinking what she wants - she thinks kangaroo and jumps high in gym class; rabbit and eats all her carrots; big and giant when she felt small and scared; and then she thought of a hedgehog in its burrow ready to sleep, and she fell asleep quick as a wink! It worked at swimming too! She thought about sharks and eels and fast boats and submarines as she swam. The same "Abigail is a whale" bully says she should jump off the high diving board if shes such a great swimmer now.

And she does - thinking "whale" as she makes a huge splash in the pool! Great job Abigail! :)

[Jelka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wanda hasst den Schwimmunterricht, weil sie aufgrund ihres dicken Körper gemobbt wird. Ihr Schwimmlehrer ist überzeigt, dass sie eine gute Schwimmerin ist, und rät ihr, sich vorzustellen, sie sei leicht wie eine Feder. Wanda probiert den Trick und es funktioniert. Sie gewinnt an Selbstvertrauen. Auch beim nächsten Schwimmunterricht setzt sie ihre Vorstellungskraft ein. Als sie vom Turm springt, macht sie sich die Beleidigungen der anderen Kinder zu eigen und spritzt als „Superwal“ ihre Mobber nass. Das Buch hat fantasievolle Bilder, die zum Betrachten und Nachdenken anregen.

[Azul · Rating 3 out of 5]

iba por buen camino, pero qué pasó al finaaaaal. igual me gustó la idea, es muy tierna. sirve para abordar el bullying de forma "amigable" y también para ser un reforzamiento positivo I guess. es un libro sobre manifestar para niñes jsjdjdj

[Natalia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un cuento con una temática delicada que ofrece herramientas para fomentar la autoestima y la seguridad en uno mismo.

Reseña: https://www.arte-literario.com/2025/0...

[Andrela · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read in two minutes LOL.
in portuguese the girl's name is Andreia (mine is Andrea). So you get it.

[Julio Barradas Rodriguez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una hermosa historia T.T

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the premise and illustrations in this book, however I am not sure if it is supposed to be an anti-bullying book or a build up someone's self esteem who has been bullied (but not deal with the actual fat shaming). Little confused about the message.

[Micaela · Rating 2 out of 5]

Note #1: The tone of this review is a bit academic because I did it for a children's literature course.
Note #2: I am an overweight woman myself, so this informed my perspective of the book.

This book is about an overweight girl named Abigail, who is teased by her classmates about her size whenever they have swimming lessons, especially when she jumps into the pool and makes a big splash. Their oh-so-original nickname for her? Whale. Her swimming teacher takes her aside and tells her to use visualization techniques that will foster her self-confidence.

While whales are inherently good swimmers, Abigail feels the need to visualize herself as other aquatic animals, like a barracuda or an eel, to improve her swimming. It is interesting that she thinks of these two particular animals, as both are very skinny, much longer than they are wide. Abigail thinks that her size disables not just her self-confidence, but her swimming, as well. Furthermore, eels and barracudas are more vicious in nature than whales are, which implies that Abigail feels the need to fight back against her bullies.

As Abigail continues to visualize herself differently, her classmates become more accepting of her and the boy she has a crush on even acknowledges her. Outwardly, Abigail has not changed – she is still heavy – but her inward change has outward manifestations. Abigail’s classmates notice that she accepts herself more now, and they treat her accordingly by accepting her.

There are two problematic ideas behind this narrative. One is the presentation of peer approval as a reward for self-confidence. Firstly the approval of others is never guaranteed, no matter how secure or insecure one may be. While approval might be a tantalizing prospect for child readers who are bullied and lack self-confidence, a healthier message would be to love oneself no matter what anyone else thinks, especially if their peers' callous treatment is based on something as shallow as appearances. Secondly, the fact that Abigail needs to visualize herself differently from how she actually is discourages true self-acceptance. Visualization techniques do have merit, but they are usually involve visualizing oneself reaching a goal, not as someone completely different.

Abigail re-visualizes herself as a whale at the end, which hints at a truer self-acceptance. However, she only does this when jumping from the high diving board. While is it true that she re-inhabits herself in order to accept a scary challenge from one of her classmates, the idea is that she becomes a whale in order to make a big splash. This implies that the only thing a heavy body is capable of is proving its weight. It implies that Abigail is disabled not just by a tainted self-perception, but by her overweight body, too.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a picture book about working with what you have. In this case Abigail is fat. When she jumps in the pool she makes waves and is teased about it. Rather than telling her to lose weight, or to not jump in, or some other such nonsense, her teacher tells her to think of herself as light.

"We are what we think," her teacher said. "If you want to swim well, you have to think light. Do you suppose birds or fish think they're too heavy? Of course not!"

So Abigail starts imagining herself as things other than what she is. She is afraid when walking home, so thinks of herself as a giant. She has trouble falling asleep so thinks of herself as a hedgehog. She uses this power in the pool and impresses everyone.

And when she wants to be a whale, she damned well does it because she wants to be.

Cute story. Bright pictures. Lovely idea.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Abigail dreaded swimming class. The kids teased her for making a splash as big as a whale. Things changed when her swimming teacher taught her that changing how she sees herself could make others see her differently also.

This is a cute picture book with adorable illustrations by Sonja Bougaeva. It was written in a language other than English, and was translated by Marlene Baleine. Most of it translated well, except referring to the "changing room" as "change room".

I enjoyed the story until the last page, which repeated the beginning with Abigail dreading swimming day. It would have been nice to see she no longer dreaded it, but realized no matter what size she was she was a fantastic swimmer.

[Emily · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is not a book that I would recommend. As soon as the teacher told Abigail “you only think you are [a whale]” I was out.

Not only does this not validate the very real emotions that Abigail is feeling, it also goes against having these insults hurled at her by the other kids. She doesn’t “think” anything. She is being called “Abigail the whale” by other people. Which the teacher doesn’t do anything about.

The power of positive thinking doesn’t take away the hurt from being called names and treated badly by other people. The whole book struck too close to victim blaming and toxic positivity.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Abigail hates to go swimming because everyone calls her a whale. He coach tells her she just needs to think about what she wants to be and so it will happen. If you are scared, thing tall, and be tall, if you are swimming, think shark and splice through the water. You can be anything. I like the message in this book, but as a big girl myself, when I was her age I wouldn’t have thought be big, I would have tried to wish myself thin, so part of me doesn’t like the message (but that is just me). Not bad, and great illustrations.

[Shallowreader VaVeros · Rating 5 out of 5]

Abigail is learning to swim but is teased by the other children for being large. Abigail's imagination allows her to take charge of her own swimming skills and oh my what a gorgeous picture book. I loved it!

[Danni Green · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did you know that you can stop bullies just by thinking thoughts at them???

[Erin]

A mixed bag.

From the beginning, the title bothered me: the entire story is titled in such a way as gives the bullies the power to name Abigail. There was some redemption at the end as Abigail reclaims the taunt in her own positive way, but this did not seem enough to warrant naming the book like this.

Abigail herself is a lovely character. She never changes her size, or feels like she has to, although swimming becomes a stressful situation for her *because* of the teasing that comes due to her size. She tries to embrace the whole idea behind positive thinking, but it's really unfortunate that changing *her* mindset is the only tool the grownups can offer her. Any kind of trick to help with anxiety or cope with difficult $h*t can be great, but it shouldn't be the *only* trick.

The hideous, pathetic teasing that targets Abigail's size could have been such an opportunity, if only this had generated a more positive response. But instead, the swim teacher completely ignores the teasing, and then tries to offer a pep talk.

After a week of positive thinking, Abigail miraculously swims so much better and the teasing is stopped in its tracks. Except one last nasty challenge from Betty to jump off the high dive -- Abigail clearly feels that this is a snide kind of dare and that Betty expects her to chicken out. Yet again, Abigail steps up and jumps off, swamping nasty Betty in the process. To me, this implies that you can positively think most bullies away, but with the really nasty ones you may have to put your physical body on the line. Positive thinking can have some great benefits, but as a kid, you should have help with bullies. I'm also just tired of nasty taunts, making fun of innocuous differences, the demeaning "jokes" that are used to both torment and gaslight. There's just no need for any of that.

The discussion of weight is tricky, I get it. Fat has become such a loaded and negative term that using it as a description feels mean. She is rounder than the other kids and makes bigger splashes than the other kids, but Abigail is a beautiful, confident swimmer. I liked Abigail. Unfortunately in this book, the reader looking for fat representation must also take a hefty dose of poorly handled bullying.

[Sarahs Reads ToKids]

Abigail is a bigger shaped kid then the other kids in her swim class. Abigail is a really good swimmer but she let the name calling from her peers get her down. When Abigail's swim teacher asks her what's wrong, Abigail's reply is that she is "too big and heavy" to be a good swimmer. Her coach challenges her to change her thinking about herself and the thoughts she thinks. Abigail first tries this out at school in different situations and starts to notice a difference in herself and others around her. Can Abigail bring that positive mindset to her swim class the next week? Will kids notice how good of a swimmer she is or will be back to making fun of her size?

I would recommend to read this book to everyone. First, to remind them that calling a person a name besides their own name is WRONG! Second, it hurts their feelings and will take a lot of effort for that person to overcome the name calling. Third, this is great book for kids who might be named called to remember that a positive mind set is important and what you think about yourself is the most important thing.

[Hannah]

So here's the thing. I love that there is a book like this because of all the things it could potentially do to make kids feel less alone or to make kids stop being awful to their peers. BUT it gets so many things wrong about swimming, mostly in the illustrations but a bit in the similes, that it was really annoying. She doesn't dive properly, and one of the first things you learn as a kid joining swim team is that you dive out, not down. It's one thing to draw a spread that is all water when she is imagining being in the sea or whatever, but when it's supposed to be a realistic depiction of actual swimming, the illustrations make no sense, because you don't swim under the water when you're doing laps, you glide. Anybody's going to be terrible at strokes if you're completely submerged and your arms can't even come out of the water. Has this illustrator been in a pool? Or had any remotely formal swim lessons? I suspect not.

[Lindsey Lawntea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Abigail is bullied in swim class. Her classmates call her "Abigail the Whale." This makes her not want to swim and lose confidence in herself because she feels "too big" to swim. However, her teacher encourages her to imagine herself light like a fish when she swims. Abigail applies this new coping skill in many different ways throughout the day and realizes she isn't "too big" to do anything! This book has good lessons about both bullying and positive affirmations for believing in yourself. Many children's books don't represent body size diversity, so I liked that Abigail learned to love herself and do what made her happy while she ignored the bullies.

Note: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley. I was not compensated in any other fashion for the review and the opinions reflected below are entirely my own. Special thanks to the publisher and author for providing the copy.

[Katie Simmons · Rating 3 out of 5]

Abigail goes to swimming lessons and believes that they are calling her a whale because of her size. (This is typically how I felt, when kids would say things to me.) Her swim instructor gave her a way of trying to see things differently. She finds out that when she looks at things differently, others will see her differently. In this book, Abigail finds out that her classmates are calling her a whale because of how good of a swimmer she could be.
Abigail reminds me of, well, me. Being larger in frame makes it hard, sometimes, to trust in ourselves and others. Several teachers tried to do similar things for me, but just one perceived hurtful thing can lead those with little self-confidence back to where we once were.

Thank you OwlKids Books and Netgalley for the digital ARC for me to give an honest review!

[Addie Healy · Rating 2 out of 5]

While it offers a new perspective to the bullying experience by focusing on a strategy for self-empowerment rather than on consequences for the bullies, I did find a few moments in the book problematic. For example, when Abigail’s instructor teaches her how to use visualization to help change her mindset about swimming, he specifically says for her to “think light.” This suggests that her traumatizing experiences at the pool are due to her weight rather than the cruelness of her peers and fat phobia . I also thought it was a miss to make approval from her peers the reward for her mindset shift. That underscores the importance of validation from others rather than developing a strong sense of self-worth. Overall, I had high hopes for this book but was disappointed.

[Jackie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The kiddo enjoyed this book, the illustrations were stunning, and Abigail is adorable. But also, I sort of feel unsatisfied with how the bullying in this story was addressed.

A little girl is bullied in swim class for being overweight. Eventually, the swim teacher notices and teaches Abigail about words of self-affirmation. It’s empowering for Abigail because she grows more confident and becomes a stronger swimmer through the book, and by the end, she reclaims the very word her classmates make fun of her for. But like… why did it even get to that point? The kids are literally chanting “Abigail is a whale” during swim class and the teacher doesn’t address it until he notices Abigail retreating inward?