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FREE INTERACTIVE STORY · AGES 5–7

The Whale Who Lost Her Song: a free interactive story

Big Blue the whale carries a city of little houses on her back, and every evening she sings the boats home. Tonight her song has gone quiet. Your child chooses how to help: ask the dolphins, sing to her, or light the lanterns.

  • Reading age 6
  • 1 short chapter, 1 choice and 3 endings
  • About 2 minutes
  • Animal story

Read the story

Choose your hero

Paint it your way

Chapter 1A quiet evening

A painted city of little houses and towers on the back of a huge whale, with lantern boats on the calm water.

Whale City was on the back of a huge whale. Her name was Big Blue.

Every evening, Big Blue sang a long, low song. The little boats heard it and sailed home.

But tonight Big Blue was quiet. The boats bobbed about on the water, lost in the mist.

Amir ran to the edge and looked into Big Blue’s big, sad eye.

“I have a sore throat,” rumbled Big Blue. “I can’t sing at all.”

What happens next is up to your child

How should Amir help?

Questions for grown-ups to ask

Did you spot it?

  1. EasyWhat was on Big Blue’s back?Answer: A whole city: Whale City.
  2. MediumWhy did the boats need Big Blue’s song?Answer: It helped them find their way home in the evening.
  3. HarderIn the lantern ending, how did the lights do the same job as the song?Answer: The boats could see the lights instead of hearing the song, so they could still find the way home.

Talk about it

  • What songs do you know that help people, like a tidy-up song or a goodnight song?
  • If you lived in Whale City, which house would you choose?

Words to talk about

whale
A very big animal that lives in the sea and breathes air.
lantern
A light inside a case, which you can carry or hang up.
jetties
Wooden paths that stick out over the water, where boats stop.
rumbled
Said in a deep, low voice, like far-off thunder.

Reading it together

The Whale Who Lost Her Song is a calm story for the end of the day, written at Litsee’s reading level for age 6. Big Blue’s deep voice and the dolphins’ whistles are fun to act out as you read.

Each ending solves the same problem in a different way: other animals, people singing together, or swapping sound for light. Ask your child which they would choose and why; there is no wrong answer.

The fact cards come from the Litsee app’s fact bank, each with its source. Children who love animals often want to look up one more fact afterwards: a children’s encyclopedia or a trip to the library is a good next step.

About this story

Reading age
6 (ages 5–7). Written for Litsee’s reading level for age 6, where sentences are mostly 5–9 words long.
Length
1 short chapter, 1 choice and 3 endings. Each way through is 127–136 words.
Reading time
About 2 minutes for a 6-year-old reading on their own, at Litsee’s pacing of 60 words a minute for that age. Reading aloud to your child is usually quicker.
Book band
Roughly Turquoise to Purple, if your child’s school uses book bands (schemes differ; see our book bands guide).
Characters
Big Blue the whale, two dolphins, the people of Whale City
Theme
Animal story

About this story

Written for litsee.com by the Litsee team, The Whale Who Lost Her Song was drafted with AI help and checked against Litsee’s reading level for age 6. Its animals facts quote the app’s fact bank word for word.

Pictures of the Whale City: from the Litsee app, painted with AI image tools and hand-picked by the Litsee team. “Read to me” plays an AI voice recorded in advance.

Last updated: .

Questions parents and teachers ask

What age is The Whale Who Lost Her Song for?

Ages 5 to 7. It is written at Litsee’s reading level for age 6, and its gentle pace suits a bedtime read.

Are the animal facts true?

Yes. The fact cards are quoted from the Litsee app’s fact bank, with sources such as the Natural History Museum and the RSPB.

Can my child choose who the story is about?

Yes. Amir leads The Whale Who Lost Her Song unless your child picks another of the 15 heroes above it. That hero’s name then fills every page, and “Put them in the pictures” paints them into the Whale City. Nothing is typed, saved or sent.

Now let your child make a story of their own.

In Litsee, your child creates the hero, picks the world and chooses what happens next in an illustrated story that is read aloud.

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