Willa and the Whale
I’m not a 13-year-old, but in reading Willa and the Whale (Shadow Mountain Publishing), I felt locked inside the head of one — with all the love, curiosity, perceptions and insecurities authors Chad Morris and Shelly Brown could muster.
And I couldn’t break that lock, so fascinated was I with the character of young Willa, what she was going through and what she was thinking along the way.
As we meet her, we learn her parents are divorced and she had chosen to live in Japan with her mother, a noted marine biologist who has passed on her love of the ocean to her daughter (“It sings my soul song; I breathe with it. And I think with it. And my heart matches the rhythm.”).
We also learn that her mother has died suddenly and Willa must return to her childhood roots on an island off the state of Washington to live with her father and his new family.
Willa is thrown into a kaleidoscope of difficulty and self-doubt. She must overcome the loss of a parent, assimilate to a new family unit, come to terms with her dad in his new life, struggle to reconnect with her former best friend Marco (now three years older) and navigate the typical adolescent travails of school, relationships and activities.
Oh, and did I mention she talks to a whale?
WHEN YOUR BEST FRIEND IS A WHALE
Her dad is a decent, loving man, doing all he can to support Willa in her time of need. This is difficult for him, trying to relate to her and be there for her even though he is not quite on her wavelength — certainly not compared to her mother. Yet he knows enough to take her whale watching in an effort to help her focus on the things she loves.
And then, when she sneaks off to the back of the boat, she faces a whale up close. “I just looked at that amazing creature and I think she looked back at me … She could see me … She wasn’t like plankton that just flows with the current. She had thoughts and life and feelings.”
“I really needed to see you today,” Willa mutters to the whale. Then the whale talks back.
The whale, Meg, provides a surreal yet charming element to the very real life issues of a child growing up, and serves as a guiding light for Willa, who can’t confide in Marco, Dad, her new family or anyone else.
With Willa so tied to the ocean and all its creatures, how fitting it is that Meg becomes Willa’s therapist, offering conversation, friendship and insight when the young girl needs it most.
To further connect Willa to the ocean, every chapter begins with a journal entry providing interesting facts about different fish, often referencing a situation on Willa’s mind.
Willa also tends to compare people to fish: “Hannah was cuter than a mandarin fish and louder than a barking sea lion,” and “Marc was basically an otter (dense fur, belongs in the water, keeps their snacks under their armpits for safekeeping).”
WILLA’S LIFE LESSONS
While the book is a fun, adventuresome read, it addresses some hard moments that children face: death and the associated sadness and hurt, as well as the insecurities of being comfortable in your own skin and trying to fit in with a group of peers, which, based on their age, can be particularly challenging.
One of the book’s great storylines develops when Willa discovers a beached blue whale and tries frantically to seek community help and save its life. The situation exposes a number of emotions and portrays Willa in all her youthful glory, working hard to think creatively and enlist support.
Willa ultimately learns that everyone, no matter how they appear on the surface, has good within them — you just need the will to find it.
As her mother says in her own journal 12 years earlier, “There are 20 million tons of gold in the ocean. It’s right under our noses. But seeing it is nearly impossible because it’s dissolved … The trick is realizing that it’s there.”
For more on Chad Morris and Shelly Brown, please visit their author profile.
