(OT) Dolphin Diaries: Touching the Waves, by Ben Baglio (Scholastic, 2000, 161 pages, $4.50, grades 4-6, ages 9-12)
A New Best Friend?
Have dolphins replaced horses as Girl’s Best Friend (besides dogs and cats, of course)? Certainly this is the case if the girls live near the ocean, say, in Florida.
Ben Baglio, author of the Pet Finders Club series, the Animal Ark series, and Jess the Border Collie series, has left land behind and branched out into the ocean with the Dolphin Diaries series. Our previous favorite Baglio book was Dog at the Door, about a golden retriever, but now we want to read the entire series of the Dolphin Diaries – all nine of them.
The Story, A Sailing
Jody and her younger brothers (both twins and definitely younger brothers!) are sailing around the world with their scientist parents to research dolphins. What could be more cool than that?
In this second book, the family of five arrives by sea aboard their Dolphin Dreamer in Key West, Florida, for a two-week stay to learn how dolphins can help autistic children - but there are so many characters that adult readers will soon forget who’s who - the scientists and their daughter the family is visiting and their comely assistant, the toddler whose life Jody saves, his wealthy parents, the cook onboard the sailing vessel and the captain with his haughty daughter who joins the crowd against her wishes for a couple of weeks when she would rather be out shopping.
Besides dolphin drama, we have middle school girl drama with jealousy and ‘fitting in’ or not. We witness a lot of growing up - that subplot only gets better as you read page after page.
As for the dolphins, are they captive or are they really free to come and go as they please, to return to the larger ocean and fight for survival? We meet bottlenose dolphin Apollo and his pod of cetaceans (dolphins), we run into a veterinary emergency and some ecological waste which endangers our sea-living friends. But we also learn that each dolphin has a ‘name’ – a sound that individually defines them. How cool is that?
Being the second book in the series of ten that takes the reader around the world, you will want to read the first book to see how it all starts and then continue on their way to learn more about dolphins and life growing up. Although this one starts out rather ‘sappy’ it does develop into a darn good sea yarn.
Caveat: This book was purchased for review.
All the titles in the series:
1. Into the Blue
2. Touching the Waves
3. Riding the Storm
4. Under the Stars
5. Chasing the Dream
6. Racing the Wind
7. Following the Rainbow
8. Dancing the Sea
9. Leaving the Shadows
10. Beyond the Sunrise
No comments:
Post a Comment