One hundred eighty-seven words are what the publisher description includes. If you wish to read about the title Whirl by Deborah Kerbel, this is your introduction. Yes, it deserves to be talked about, but I find it amusing that a wordless picture book (except for the description at the end about maple seeds) has that many words to describe it. The result of that description is to tell you the whole story. You do not get to experience it fresh. I was lucky enough to not have read the description and just went for it.
You the reader/viewer will follow the story of a whirligig (or maple seed) as it travels through nature and finds different people and creatures. You can follow all the fun and amazing things it will see and do. You can make up the journeys words as you go along. Or you can just look at the art by Josee Bisaillon and not make anything up or think about what the story is. And this artwork is, for me, what makes the book.
The afterwards is where the information comes from. I did not know a maple leaf could be called a maple key. I had forgotten that sometimes it is called a whirligig. But the box of information was not a lot. Just an introduction in fact. There are soft, sweet, slightly silly illustrations. There are a lot of details to the illustrations and has light but strong colorings. They are cozy, not cartoonish, but not completely realistic, either.
The book is just a nice sit down and look at book.
