Paul Baker Newman

Ambrose the Whale: a Novel for Children and Adults Paul Baker Newman

The princess of Cambodia has to choose (don't we all) between a safe but boring life and a life of exciting risk. Aided by the splash of Ambrose the whale, she embarks on a quest which leads to encounters with a piratical whaling captain, a young sailor, a legion of miniature Vikings, an army of fighting squids, a great white whale (Moby Dick), and a war to liberate the Thrallbeggars (as the miniature Vikings are called) from being the snack food of the ocean, before she finds an answer. In all this, Ambrose is her indispensable friend.

Ambrose the Whale is filled with word play and humor. It is chiefly a parody of the conventional fairy story, at the same time that it is a story of dreams where wishes conquer reason, and yet remind us of common sense. What we desire-this story tells us-comes to us because we give in to dreams and seek the real behind them. We discover who we are through search. The princess in this amusing story of a dream world where nothing happens without meaning, remembers what she has known all along. She finds out what everyone wants to know-the person that she is.