Young adult novel “Whale Song” by acclaimed Canadian author Cheryl Kaye Tardif is the story of Sarah, a young girl who is leaving her Wyoming farm and moving with her family to Vancouver Island. Her father is a scientist who will be studying the killer whales that live in the oceans near the island, and he has found his family a wonderful home to stay in for the next few years while he carries out his studies.
Sarah isn’t sure about being away from Wyoming for so long – all her friends are there, and she doesn’t like the idea of having to start from scratch. But the island itself is beautiful, and the house they will be renting is close to the water. It’s different from Wyoming, but in a good way.
Standing on their beach, she can see a smaller island in the distance, known as Fallen Island. Her father tells her that a year previously, a local boy tried to swim out there and drowned. He forbade Sarah to ever try to swim that far.
Wandering around the beach, Sarah meets Goldie, a beautiful girl of Indian heritage who tells Sarah that it was her brother who drowned. Goldie believes that the spirit of her brother comes back as a killer whale who appears near Fallen Island to communicate with her.
The more time Sarah spends with Goldie, the more she comes to feel that Vancouver Island is her home. But when school starts, she finds herself enmeshed in a web of prejudice, as her classmates are Indian, and she is not. One girl in particular seems to have it out for her, and Sarah spends a lot of time trying to avoid the bullies and remain invisible.
Meanwhile, Sarah’s mother is becoming ill, and eventually is diagnosed with a life-threatening condition. Sarah overhears her mother beg her father not to keep her alive by artificial means, but to pull the plug if she grows worse. Sarah’s world is shattered when her mother does pass away, and she sees her father standing near the bed, holding the plug in his hand. Sarah is unable to testify, because she has no memory of what happened.
Years pass, with Sarah’s father in jail for murder. At the time of his release, Sarah’s memory finally begins to return, but will she be able to face the truth?
I enjoyed this story quite a bit. The author describes the beauty of Vancouver Island in such a way, I wanted to board a plane and go there myself. I loved the detail of the scientists’ work with echolocation and the other experiments they conducted with the whales, and the way that the local folklore wove in and out through the story. My only criticism – the beginning chapters of the book were well-fleshed out and provided great detail, while the last few chapters seemed a bit spare and short. I would have liked the later chapters to be as rich and full as at the beginning, but I did appreciate the book quite a bit overall.
Be sure to join us here on Families.com first thing tomorrow morning. Cheryl Kaye Tardif is on a virtual book tour this month and will be joining us for an interview here on Families.com. You won’t want to miss it.
(“Whale Song” was originally published in 2003, and then again in 2007 by Kunati.)
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