Isabel of the Whales by Hester Velmans
I am Sarah. I am fourteen years old and an avid reader; it is one of my favorite things to do. Inspired by authors’ creations of magnificent places and surprising havens built by simple letters, I aspire to be an author and, meanwhile, nurture the love to write.
Eleven-year-old Isabel has never been anything special. She’s just a plain old girl from Provincetown, Massachusetts, with two older brothers, two ordinary friends, a passion for whales. But despite that, she’s always believed—scratch that, known—that she’s destined for something special. Something extraordinary.
When her fifth-grade class gears up to go on a whale watch, Isabel is beyond excited. To have the opportunity to see the whales she’s pined after her whole life is the most exciting thing that’s ever happened to her. Maybe she’ll get to see, in person, a breaching humpback, or maybe a right whale, with its magnificent baleen… she dreams and dreams and dreams, and suddenly she’s on a boat surrounded by whales and then she’s in the water.
Encircled by the whales she’s read about her whole life.
And somehow, she can understand them.
The whales tell her that she’s a Chosen One: a human with the ability to turn into a whale. It is her destiny to land here, to live with this pod of humpbacks, and to learn their ways while she teaches them hers.
Hester Velmans spins a captivating story about life under the sea, using migration patterns and feeding habits through the eyes of an impassioned young girl, a girl with a gift and a mission.
And so begins Isabel’s journey with her newfound pod—a journey in which she learns more about whales than she ever could have known, and even more about herself: discovering just how much she will do to help these creatures that she loves so much more than she ever thought possible.
