Song for a Whale

2.5/5

A book with a lot of heart and mostly good friendship and familial relationships. Unfortunately I began to find the protagonist annoying about halfway through, largely because of what I felt was the bloated sense of importance she gave to herself meeting Blue 55 and the absolute need to play her song ASAP, to the point of running away from her family when they rightfully refused to send her to Alaska. It broke my immersion with the otherwise realistic story.

I've written, then deleted, at least four different versions of this review so far. Sometimes you pick up a story and it's so poignant, so important, that it's really hard to write anything resembling a coherent review. That's this book right here. Lynne Kelly has created something magical with Iris' story. It's not just the fact that she's a character who represents the Deaf community. It's not just the sweet way that she ties her passion for radios into communicating with someone who is just as lost as she is, in a sea of others. What makes this book special is how simply it shows how important connections are. To others, to yourself, to the world. I teared up while reading this book and, trust me, you're probably going to as well.

I wanted to give love, first and foremost, to Iris as a protagonist. You can absolutely tell that Kelly did her research, because Iris is precisely what readers from the Deaf community would be looking for in a character. Her inability to hear doesn't define her, but it does kind of set her apart in the world that she is attempting to navigate as a young person. She does a lot of growing from the start of the book, but my favorite part was watching her learn that she wasn't the only one who felt that way. I won't spoil, but there's a lot in this book about accepting others and, especially, appreciating their efforts to learn.

The scientific portion of this story, or the portion that had to do with the ever amazing Blue 55, was also beautifully executed. Learning about whale songs right alongside Iris made me smile. Kelly peppers in things like whale spout shapes, and fluke shapes, all the while making the learning feel like a normal part of the story. Plus, Iris' passion for all of this is infectious. I was rooting for her to communicate with Blue 55 right from the start, and you couldn't have pulled this book away from me if you tried.

I could gush on and on about the familial relationships in this book, or the way that it deals so perfectly with the loss of a loved one, but it would take many more paragraphs than you'd want to read. The fact of the matter is that this is both a gorgeous and important story. I thought the ending was a little bit out there but I had to remind myself that my middle grade self would have LOVED it. It's sweet, and Iris definitely deserved a happily ever after.

Read this! Put it into the hands of all the budding readers that you know. They're going to love Song For A Whale, and so are you.

Such great d/Deaf representation - Reading the about the author section was really enlighten about the certain choices she's made for the story. She studied ASL and knows about d/Deaf culture, for example a strong choice she made for this character in particular is making her proud of her d/Deaf culture/experience and was not portrayed as ever missing out or feeling less because she is Deaf. She had a signing d/Deaf family that made this feel like a culture/family if people maybe weren't familiar with it. Many times d/Deaf people's family do not learn how to sign, I'm glad she addressed this in the authors notes of why she decided to make the family sign but also make sure the dad didn't sign as well/as interested so this feeling could also be addressed.

Anyway, I also like this character being curious, talented in science (research, engineering, and understanding decibel soundwaves) and also kind of a brat. She's a young teen and I'm glad they did make her a bit too into herself because she felt like a fleshed out young person. She has a journey of discovery when she learns about a whale, who she projects her emotions on because she feels he is similar to her. She becomes obsessed and wonders why people equally be on par with her excitement (even after doing a great deal of work to help figure out a way to attract the whale so scientist can place a tracker on it...which like I would be upset here too because that's amazing!)
Her Grandmother, who is depressed after her husband dies, takes her on a trip to Alaska to maybe help get the tracker placed on the whale.

This doesn't quite do this book justice, I easily give it 5 stars because I think it is a great d/Deaf protagonists with an author that does understand what being d/Deaf is. It doesn't make it too my favorites because I took me a long time to connect with her (despite her being nicely characterized brat with a journey lol) and because there was so much projected emotion on the whale...which you could say is the point of the story...obsession.

Speaking of which, I thought it was odd they mentioned Moby Dick a bit...ya know hunting a whale and all... but the obsession bit was probably what was being referenced here?