Isabel of the Whales FROM THE PUBLISHER
Eleven-year-old Isabel is a "plain old" girl living in Provincetown, Massachusetts, who believes that she is destined to accomplish something special. When her fifth-grade class goes on a whale-watch field trip, something amazing happens: Dozens of different species of whales surround the boat, bumping the deck and sending Isabel flying into the ocean. Isabel is shocked to hear the whales speaking to her—she is a mermaid, they tell her, a "Chosen One" who has the ability to turn from a human into a whale and back again. She is destined to live among the whales long enough to learn their ways, and teach them about the human world.
Living among her pod is fun, at first, but Isabel has an important mission. She will change the whales' future forever, and learn a lot about herself in the process.
FROM THE CRITICS
Kirkus Reviews
Fantasy and reality merge in this aquatic coming-of-age adventure with a compelling ecological message. When her 5th-grade class goes on a whale watch, 11-year-old Isabel falls overboard as a congregation of whales surrounds the boat. Instead of drowning, Isabel finds herself very much alive as she morphs into a whale. Adopted by a pod of humpbacks, Isabel discovers she is their "Chosen One" who "will stay long enough to learn, and to fulfill her task." Initially, Isabel misses her human family, but gradually the ocean becomes home. The whales teach her underwater survival as they migrate from North Pole to equator. In return, Isabel engineers some lifesaving tricks of her own. But after a year, Isabel must make a wrenching choice between land and sea. To Velmans's credit, the improbable seems probable through the eyes and voice of her down-to-earth heroine. Watch out Little Mermaid, here comes Isabel. (notes, drawings) (Fiction. 8-12)
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