If you’ve ever felt like you weren’t being heard, then you can relate to Iris.
Iris is the 12-year-old protagonist in the 2024 One Book One Community selection – Song for a Whale by Lynne Kelly.
Iris is a technical genius, but being the only deaf girl in her school, people don’t always recognize her for her intelligence and she often feels like no one is listening to her.
When she hears about Blue 55, a whale whose song is so off-pitch that he is unable to communicate with other whales, Iris believes she understands how he must feel. She becomes obsessed with creating a song just for him so that he will know that he is not alone and she’s willing to break a few rules to reach him 3,000 miles away.
Kelly, a sign language interpreter, won the 2020 Schneider Family Book Award for Song for a Whale, which was also named one of the best books of the year by New York Public Library.
Copies of the book will be available for sale at Rodman Library and the Branch later this month at a cost of $8.99 plus tax.
Programs and a date for a visit by the author will be announced in January.