Save the whales! What was this dimly remembered children's book?
May 15, 2018 10:32 AM Subscribe
Some time around 1984, I read a YA novel in which the main character either switched consciousness with or took over the consciousness of a whale. Anyone?
I remember very few concrete details - the plot was something about how there was an environmental threat to the whales and dolphins near this particular city, and the girl....did something through swapping consciousnesses? The whales had people-like individual personalities. I remember it as a rather melancholy book, but then I was a melancholy kid so for all I know it could have been a comedy.
I dimly remember that the cover of the library copy was a dark cool color, like a deep blue.
I remember very few concrete details - the plot was something about how there was an environmental threat to the whales and dolphins near this particular city, and the girl....did something through swapping consciousnesses? The whales had people-like individual personalities. I remember it as a rather melancholy book, but then I was a melancholy kid so for all I know it could have been a comedy.
I dimly remember that the cover of the library copy was a dark cool color, like a deep blue.
Is it A Ring of Endless Light? It's dolphins/telepathy, but definitely has the melancholy. And the blue cover.
posted by something something at 10:36 AM on May 15, 2018
posted by something something at 10:36 AM on May 15, 2018
I bet it's Deep Wizardry from Diane Duane's Young Wizards series.
posted by nonane at 10:39 AM on May 15, 2018 [9 favorites]
posted by nonane at 10:39 AM on May 15, 2018 [9 favorites]
Response by poster: Sadly it's not either of these - I read A Ring of Endless Light and recall it pretty well, and I remember that the mystery book had human politics, not the Young Wizards books' entropy. There wasn't any magic per se, just the consciousness switching.
posted by Frowner at 11:09 AM on May 15, 2018
posted by Frowner at 11:09 AM on May 15, 2018
Best answer: Hmm, A Circle in the Sea? "Through the powers of a ring, a 13-year-old girl with problems adjusting to her new school enters an undersea world where she becomes a dolphin and aids the whales in retaliating against slaughter by whalers."
or something else from the Cetacean Fiction Bibliography of alt.animals.dolphins et al?
posted by nonane at 11:22 AM on May 15, 2018 [3 favorites]
or something else from the Cetacean Fiction Bibliography of alt.animals.dolphins et al?
posted by nonane at 11:22 AM on May 15, 2018 [3 favorites]
Response by poster: It was A Circle In The Sea!!!!! I am going to get it on inter-library loan, since there are approximately zero used copies floating around the internet. I even vaguely remember the typeface! I guess there was some magic, eg the ring.
Woo-hooo, this question has tormented me for years!
posted by Frowner at 12:27 PM on May 15, 2018
Woo-hooo, this question has tormented me for years!
posted by Frowner at 12:27 PM on May 15, 2018
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by cakelite at 10:35 AM on May 15, 2018