Meet the author

Casey Lyall.

Writer · Canada

Canadian author of Whale, That Was Unexpected, a gloriously silly, fourth-wall-breaking cumulative sea story made for lively, laugh-out-loud reading aloud.

Casey Lyall is a Canadian author who lives and works at her local library in south-western Ontario, writing warm, funny books for children across picture books and middle grade. Her picture book Whale, That Was Unexpected, illustrated by Kathryn Durst, is a gloriously silly cumulative sea story: when the crusty fisherwoman Maude and her scruffy dog Claude are swallowed whole by a whale, Maude simply decides to throw a farewell party, only to keep rewriting the guest list as a crab, an octopus, a goat and more tumble in after them. Lyall's spirited rhyming text crackles with deadpan wit and cheeky fourth-wall-breaking asides, as Maude has a few sharp words with the narrator about how her story is being told. A star-reviewed, laugh-out-loud read-aloud with bags of personality and attitude.