Burt Dow: Deep Water Man

Written by Robert McCloskey

Narrated by Tim Sample

Burt catches himself a lot more than a fish when he and his trusty boat, the Tidely-Idely, put out to sea. A whale of a tale!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Weston Woods
• Release date: Jan 1, 1983
• ISBN: 9780545404143

Reviews for Burt Dow

[larisaawhite · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A Maine fisherman has an adventure involving a leaky boat and a journey into the belly of a whale and out again in a most creative fashion. An all-time family favorite for read-alouds. Superb story, characterization, and dialogue. Lots of fun and surprises.

[9005sayaka · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

1. バート　ドーは　深海の海の老男です。　海で大きな、大きなクジラの腹の中へボートと共に飲み込まれます。胃の中は真っ暗、ボートに積んであったランプを灯し、胃の中を思い切りペイントをして楽しみます。がクジラのゲップとともにまた海に放り出されます。　本のイラストが大きくて解り易かった。2.　Ａ　ｔａｌｅ　ｏｆ　ｔｈｅ　ｓｅａ　ｉｎ　ｔｈｅ　ｃｌａｓｓｉｃ　ｔｒａｄｉｔｉｏｎ3.　about 3330 words4. 90 minutes　

[cheryl_in_cc_nv · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A little long for the Make Way for Ducklings fans, but terrific for young schoolchildren.

The language is full of rhythm, repetition, alliteration, onomatopoeia, and other clever tricks to make it lively and funny. The art is fantastic, (in the classic tradition" as Burt's narrator would say) with full-color details of Burt and his boat & gull, and iconographic whales in a variety of colors. The design is also special, in that some pages are cliff-hangers, and the text gets interrupted, without even a comma, at the page break.

I love the details, like the sources of the different colors on Burt's boat, and impatient sister Leela, and the particular kinds of paints and debris used to tickle the whale's stomach, and the particular kind of band-aid.

Oh I wish I'd known about this when my boys were little. If you've not read it yet, and you like picture-books or tall tales, make haste to find a copy in your library system and check it out to preserve it from getting culled for lack of circulation."

[szanes_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A rollicking good tale with plenty of sound words. Even though this book was written in the early 60s, it is still enjoyable to children today. It flows, and bounces and rocks! A crusty old "salt" proves to be sympathetic and understanding to the animals around him. A tender-hearted tail.

[drruth_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One of my all time favorite picture books -- the story of Burt Dow who accidentally hooks a whale, repairs its tail, rides out a storm in its tummy, escapes through his own ingenuity, and then must adorn the tails of an entire fleet (pod?) of whales with bandaids is delightful and the pictures are terrific. My children love this story as much as I did growing up.