The Music of Dolphins

The Music of Dolphins
Karen Hesse
Scholastic, 1996
181 pages
Grades 3-7
Animal Story

Mila only remembers her life with her dolphin family, swimming by day and sleeping on the island sand at night. She is picked up from the sea by the US Coast Guard and given to the government for research and rehabilitation purposes. At first Mila is very unhappy and confused by everything. Dr. Beck and kind assistant Sandy slowly begin to break through to Mila and she slowly starts to adjust to life on land, though always missing her ocean home and family. She meets another feral girl, Shay, who is experiencing a harder time relearning how to be human. Making friends with Dr. Beck's son and discovering music help to ease Mila's transition and for a while it looks as if she is making great progress. Dr. Beck is hopeful that she can discover the secret behind dolphin-speak through Mila and spends time trying to get information from her young patient. Despite all of the progress, Mila starts to slowly regress. The pull of the ocean is too strong. Will she bounce back or is the experiment destined to end in disaster?

I rediscovered this book as I am looking for "under the sea" titles to fit in with my summer "battle of the books". I remember loving it when it first came out, but was curious to discover if it still holds up. I became swept up, yet again, in this simple, yet heartful story and fell in love with it-and Mia-once more. The designers were very intentional and use type to help convey the story. The book starts and finishes with a poetic account of what is in Mia's head as she experiences life as a dolphin-girl. and is in italics to set this narration apart. As the book begins the font is big and gradually gets smaller, as Mia's vocabulary increases and she learns and understands more about the human world. A newspaper article informs the reader of Mia's backstory and we see Mia gradually learn about her past and come to terms with her confusing childhood and the tragedy that led her to the dolphins. Animal lovers are the natural audience for this book, but really anyone would like it. The length is short and it reads quickly with a linear plot, making it accessible to a variety of readers. Although it is not a good fit for my battle of the books (not enough plot details for quizzing), this is a story that continues to hold up twenty-five years later and I would highly recommend it to thoughtful readers.