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A review by book_concierge
The Music of Dolphins by Karen Hesse
3.0
3.5***
This book is suitable for middle-school children, though it deals with some very interesting issues. Mila is a young girl found living alone on an atoll off the coast of Florida. Apparently, she had survived a boat capsizing when just a toddler and was saved by (and “raised by”) a pod a dolphins. Now, she is a feral child, and a group of doctors, psychologists and sociologists are certain they know what is best for her.
I’ve read a number of Hesse’s books and I particularly like the novels written in verse. This has a bit of that feel to it, with fragments of thought put down by Mila as she learns the English language and tries to make sense of what she is experiencing given the context of the dolphin society she has grown up knowing. There were times when I felt incredibly sad for her (and her dolphin mother). Times when I applauded her “progress” and delighted in the discoveries she made.
Then ending is rather ambiguous, and I’ve read the last three or four chapters over and over again, trying to come to a definitive conclusion.
This book is suitable for middle-school children, though it deals with some very interesting issues. Mila is a young girl found living alone on an atoll off the coast of Florida. Apparently, she had survived a boat capsizing when just a toddler and was saved by (and “raised by”) a pod a dolphins. Now, she is a feral child, and a group of doctors, psychologists and sociologists are certain they know what is best for her.
I’ve read a number of Hesse’s books and I particularly like the novels written in verse. This has a bit of that feel to it, with fragments of thought put down by Mila as she learns the English language and tries to make sense of what she is experiencing given the context of the dolphin society she has grown up knowing. There were times when I felt incredibly sad for her (and her dolphin mother). Times when I applauded her “progress” and delighted in the discoveries she made.
Then ending is rather ambiguous, and I’ve read the last three or four chapters over and over again, trying to come to a definitive conclusion.