Ahab and the White Whale

By: Manuel Marsol

Published by New York Review of Books, 2026-05-12

Get the story of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick from the weird-but-lovable villain, Captain Ahab, in this silly and thrilling kids picture book for ages 5-9!

Ahab’s beautifully illustrated, off-kilter adventure on the high seas offers an important lesson on obsession and staying true to yourself.

On the island of Nantucket lives the greatest whaling captain of all time. Call him Ahab. He has long searched for the great white whale known as Moby Dick. Whenever Ahab heard any news of the whale, he rushed off to sea in his ship the Pequod. He climbed mountains, scaled sunken wrecks, crossed oceans without any luck. He wasted whole days shut up in his cabin. He traveled to the ends of the earth, but still the whale was not to be found. Ahab spent so much time on the hunt that he even forgot what he was looking for! The sea is a mystery, that much he can say for sure.

In this exquisitely illustrated story inspired by Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, Manuel Marsol turns Captain Ahab into a sympathetic, driven goofball with valuable lessons to impart about life, leviathans, and not letting our goals obscure the world right in front of our eyes.