An interesting collection of short stories. These are not cheery stories for children - far from it - these are dark. But they create a stunning call for peace.

Truly beautiful stories that show the best of humanity and the worst of humanity both at the same time. From kamikaze pilots, to innocent civilians trying to shelter from bombs, both sides of the horrors of war are told here, and to heart-breaking effect.
Why did I only give it 4 stars? Because I felt some of the stories were just too harrowing for children. So many of the stories end in horrible deaths, that the book haunted me long after I'd put it down, and I'm a grown adult! I remember how seeing the TV movie "Threads" about a nuclear war in the UK haunted my teen years, and how I wished I'd been older when I'd seen it, and I got the same creeping sense of horror and sadness when reading these stories. While I appreciate that war rarely leads to many happy endings, the sadness in this series of short stories is pretty relentless.
A beautiful book, nonetheless. Highly recommended if you're strong of heart!

The Whale that Fell in Love with a Submarine by Akiyuki Nosaka is a series of short stories set in war torn Japan on August 15, 1945. The dreamlike quality of the writing makes the tragedy of war and death a surreal experience, from the first story of the oversized, lonely whale who falls in love with a submarine and ends up sacrificing itself to save his love during a submarine attack, to the story of the dying wolf who uses her last breaths to save an abandoned, sickly child. The stories are devastating, and the author does a commendable job capturing the confusion of children and animals - the innocent victims - who search for reason behind an atrocious, traumatizing war. I would recommend this to an older middle grade audience, particularly those who desire a different perspective about the human toll resulting from World War II.

ARC Review: The Whale that Fell in Love with a Submarine by Akiyuki Nosaka

These stories are all very surreal, which didn't surprise me. In fact, that's kind of what I was hoping for.

I'm not really sure how to review them beyond saying I found them all very well written, kind of haunting, illustrating the best and/or the worst of humanity in difficult and dangerous times.

I'm not really sure what else to say...

I really liked all of these stories, very well written and thought provoking.

Out of extraordinary times comes extraordinary literature, and that's certainly the case with this book of fable-type Japanese short stories. They all centre around VJ Day – the submission by the Emperor of Japan to finally end WWII – and do so with galling, shocking, powerfully emotional and emotive darkness. At first we get something twee – a large whale that we are told is just too off-puttingly buy for the female of his species, even if they are regularly larger. He seems to find a mate in a submarine, but that's not the end of the story. A young lad and his parrot, which had constantly been a quite unworkable memento of his father, live alone in an air raid shelter. A mother harbours her son in the middle of a fire-storm – yes, I did imply the tweeness ran out. This story, certainly, is hard-hitting enough for the adult reader, let alone the traumatised youth the book seeks to target.

The fourth story is equally bare and forthright about the destruction about the world – a dying wolf meets a young girl abandoned on a route march, and you realise nothing is being hidden from the audience, by any fashion or technique – the way the different animals all look up and see aeroplanes above them, and not some idea of what animals would assume them to be, is a case in point. We get a blunt and firm resolution to each tale – as well as to that age-old quandary, what would survive a war better – a cockroach, or a kamikaze pilot? Only towards the end do we get a sustained period of happiness – in contrast to the life of a POW, and ultimately a child's eye view that for once doesn't make us fear for the dreariness of our lot.

These stories are pretty much superb – tightly written, if fond of overly-long flashback sequences now and again, vivid and evocative, and I guess burning with quite a fierce moral, even from the Japanese eye view of the victim. They've been well presented, as usual, by Pushkin Press, although I really didn't take to the pictures that added nothing. They certainly amount to a strong work together and apart, and combine to create a book the likes of which you won't have read before.

This book is surreal and devastating. Even though it's very short, it took me many months to read as I needed to have a break after each story. I loved it.

'The Whale That Fell In Love With A Submarine' by Akiyuki Nosaka with translation by Ginny Tapley Takemori and illustrations by Mika Provata-Carlone is a collection of stories for children from a period of time at the end of World War II. These are stories of the bad things that can happen to children during wartime, so, reader, be warned.

The stories are all dated the 15th of August 1945, which is when Japan surrendered. The title story is about a whale that courts a submarine. The sailors tie their farewell notes to the whale, but the whale is never able to deliver them. In one story, a boy left in a bomb shelter discovers that his mother has turned into a kite. In another, a wolf takes in an abandoned child.

In all, things are bleak. There are bombed out cities, and not enough food. In come cases, the children have never had sweets because of rationing. In all cases, the children find something whimsical in their environs, but this is usually before bad things happen.

Children understand that bad things can happen, but whether these stories are right to read to your child is going to be your call. The themes are somber and nothing really funny or happy happens. The illustrations are sparsely drawn, but fit the story really well. I'm glad I got to read this story.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Pushkin Children's Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.