BIBLIOGRAPHY
Kelly, Lynne. 2019. Song for a Whale. New York: Delacorte Press. ISBN:978-1524770235.
PLOT SUMMARY
Iris is the only Deaf student in her grade, and very familiar with the school’s principal and her office. Despite her behavioral issues, she is mostly a frustrated advanced student whose favorite subject is science. In her spare time Iris likes to fix antique radios. Because of her disability, Iris interacts more with Mr. Charles, her ASL translator who attends all her classes with her, than with any of her peers. Iris especially dislikes Nina, who pretends to speak sign language but makes no sense. At lunch one day, Nina keeps signing furious nonsense at her face. Iris loses patience and shoves her. Having been warned that if she ended up in the principal’s office again, she would be grounded, her mother confiscates the antique radios from Iris’s room. This lull in routine allows Iris to think more about Blue 55, the whale her science teacher introduced in class as one who cannot communicate with other whales as he sings at a different frequency than them. Familiar herself with social isolation, pretty soon, Iris sets on a quest to communicate with Blue 55, to let him know there is someone out there who cares.
For the first time, Iris comes out of herself to ask her peers for help. She asks if the band director can record a song in 55 hertz. Mr. Russell and his orchestra students oblige. She emails the file to Andi Rivera, the marine biologist who failed to tag Blue 55 at the latest sighting, in hopes that by playing her song, 55 will stick around long enough to tag. Andi responds with gratitude and extends an invitation for Iris to tour the Alaskan sanctuary sometime. Iris’ excitement quickly dissipates as her parents reject her idea to set on a last-minute trip to Appleton, Alaska to see 55. After her husband’s and Iris’s grandfathers recent passing, Iris’s grandmother, on the other hand, sees this impromptu trip as an opportunity to come out and ease the weight of “too much of a drizzly November in her soul” (47).
The pair set out a secret Alaskan cruise and do not mention anything until they are aboard the cruise ship. While on board, Grandma feels a sense of belonging and her joy returns, while Iris befriends Bennie and meets her scientist mother Sura. While en route to Appleton, 55 is silent. Once he sings again Iris realizes he has taken a wide detour, and is off the coast of Oregon instead of Alaska. The Lighthouse Bay sanctuary staff will not be playing Iris’s song.
Iris is determined to play Blue 55’s song herself. After so many obstacles, the stars finally align and Iris not only gets to play the song, but swim and touch Blue 55 in the marine mammal sanctuary waters. Despite being in major trouble for taking off without permission, much like Blue 55 fits in the Oregon sanctuary housing sick, injured and retired sea animals, Iris’s parents recognize that allowing Iris to attend Bridgewood Junior High, known for its large Deaf student population, will be the best environment for Iris to thrive.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Iris stands as an individual very different from what one would assume a Deaf tween to be. Abled-bodied and neurotypical individuals tend to assume that if and because someone has a disability, they will act more amicable, shy, or even submissive. Conversely, some may think that disabled individuals may be unintelligent, brisk or aggressive. Iris is a confident—if not arrogant—intelligent, dexterous individual. She misbehaves particularly in Ms. Conn’s class because she treats her as if she were stupid. Ms. Conn is the one who usually sends Iris to the principal’s office. This condescending attitude, paired with Nina’s unintelligible flailing arms, provoke Iris. Despite being Deaf, Iris is capable and expected to get as frustrated, angry, and enraged as the next “sing language impaired” (53) person.
Iris’s scientific and technological predisposition makes her one-minded quest to meet Blue 55 seem more realistic. She has fixed many vintage radios already. Iris does not let her lack of hearing keep her from a challenging hobby. Her brain is happiest when she has solved a problem. She composes a song from the technical knowledge of frequencies. It sounds awful to the hearing human, but from the feel of a fixed radio, she knows that music is more than sound: It is also vibration and movement, and that is what speaks to her and Blue 55. Despite composing a song through technicalities, and wanting to follow her hypothesis through to the conclusion, her bigger drive is heart. Once she finds out about 55’s loneliness, she must let him know that he is not alone, that she has gone through the trouble of communicating with him because she too has felt this alone. If readers consider that Song for a Whale is a modern epic, heroes and heroines usually must overcome all and any obstacles in their journey to reach their goal, which in Iris’s case is playing that song for Blue 55.
Particularly through the treatment and descriptions of American Sign Language and her 25 years as an interpreter, Kelly portrays the Deaf community with insight and humanity. In the 2nd chapter, readers immediately realize the complexity and nuances of ASL as the language is able to compose poetry. Iris being fluent in only “old people” sign language, as Wendell points out, also demonstrates that ASL is a live language, changing in formality according to context and recipient. Bennie reprimands Iris’s scoffing at Nina’s bad ASL by pointing out it is “probably no worse than you speaking whale, right?” (234). Iris, in fact, had been worried her song would sound like Nina’s hands! (95). Bennie’s comment links speaking bad ASL to someone speaking bad whale, or French or Italian, and places signed language at the same level as spoken one. Readers realize from Iris’s relationship with her father, who refuses to learn ASL proficiently, that this is the equivalent of a parent speaking in broken sentences to their child, or worse, always staying silent around them. Finally, because Iris’s is a contemporary story, Kelly makes it obvious that there are resources and sanctuaries of sorts for Deaf individuals. Opposed to Iris’s father, Wendell’s mother, Ms. Jackson, fully embraces learning ASL and creates a haven for Deaf students like her son at Bridgewood Junior High School. Ignoring a disability can harm more than help someone, Kelly argues, and Iris’s mother finally realizes that in trying to keep Iris in a regular school, she was further reducing her chances to participate in society.
Song for a Whale offers a contemporary odyssey with an unlikely heroine. Iris is a character that deserved to take up the space above, below and around her. Her story is a gem to the cannon of literature that act as a mirror for those whose books have too long been only windows.
AWARDS2021
Keystone to Reading Book Award, Winner, Middle School
2020 Horace Mann Upstanders Book Award, Winner
2020 Odyssey Award, Honor, Children (13-18)
2020 Schneider Family Book Award, Winner, Middle School
2019 Cybils Awards, Finalist, Middle Grade Fiction
2019 Outstanding Works of Literature, Short List, Middle School
2019 Parents’ Choice Award, Silver, Fiction
REVIEW EXCERPTS
From Kirkus: “Iris’s adventures will engross readers, though Deaf and hearing audiences will likely experience them differently.”
From Bookist: “The strength of the book is its strong portrayal of Iris as a Deaf girl in a hearing world and an intelligent 12-year-old in headlong, single-minded pursuit of her goal.”
CONNECTIONS
Bell, Cece. 2014. El Deafo. An autobiographical graphic novel about the author’s experience losing her hearing in primary school and growing up with a hearing aid.
Entrada Kelly, Erin. 2020. Hello, Universe. 2018 Newbery Medal. Features a Deaf character, Valencia Somerset, in an emerging tween friend group.
Biblioterika 