Dolphin Song

by Lauren St. John

Overview

The second exciting adventure in the dramatic Legend of the Animal Healer series!

Martine is just getting used to her new life on the game reserve with her grandmother and the white giraffe, Jemmy, when she must go away. Her class is going on a trip?an ocean voyage to watch the sardine run, a spectacular natural phenomenon off the coast of South Africa. But the exciting adventure takes a dramatic turn when Martine and several of her classmates are thrown overboard into shark-infested waters! They are saved by a pod of dolphins and end up marooned on a deserted island. Now the castaways must learn to work together, not only to survive but to help the dolphins who are now in peril.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781440631160
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	05/01/2008
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	668,965
File size:	479 KB
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Lauren St. John lives in London, England. A well-respected biographer and sports journalist, she grew up in Zimbabwe, Africa, where she had a pet giraffe, as well as numerous dogs, horses, and warthogs. This setting inspired The White Giraffe as well as her recent memoir, Rainbow’s End.

Editorial Reviews

Gr 4-7

Continuing the story begun in The White Giraffe (Dial, 2007), St. John throws 11-year-old Martine into another dangerous situation in which she must depend on her relationship with animals to survive. The child, recently orphaned and sent to live with her grandmother on a game reserve in South Africa, has had trouble adapting to her new school. She reluctantly embarks on a class trip to study nature at sea, and, before long, she and six of her classmates are tossed overboard during a storm. Rescued by dolphins, they survive shark-infested waters and are stranded on a deserted island. Five of the kids tormented Martine and her lone friend, Ben, in the first book, and they are no kinder here. But Ben, while mostly silent, has a lot of survival skills, and Martine has her powers of prophecy and healing, and the two of them prove to be self-sufficient and even content with their situation. As Ben teaches Martine how to find food, water, and shelter, he also guides her toward compassion as their desperate classmates begin to accept them. Not every plot point holds water, but this is an action-packed story with a strong environmental message and an admirable heroine. It brings the cultures of native and colonial South Africa together in the form of a young girl who is discovering that she is part of both. Talk this one up to your adventure buffs and animal lovers.-Susan Oliver, Tampa-Hillsborough Public Library System, FL

School Library Journal

Six months after the action of last year's The White Giraffe, Martine has pretty much settled in with her grandmother at her South Africa game reserve. But events soon conspire to unseat her newfound ease: A multi-day school cruise will both take her away from Jemmy, her giraffe friend, and force her to swim, something she's deathly afraid of. Moreover, the cave paintings that eerily foretold her previous adventures now depict a lone swimmer surrounded by dolphins-and sharks. In short order, Martine, her friend Ben and some of her most poisonous antagonists from school find themselves marooned on a deserted island, cast overboard during a storm and miraculously rescued by dolphins. How will they survive? Why do the dolphins suddenly beach themselves? And who are the shady men whose boat prowls the offshore waters? As in the earlier book, the quick pace, the dynamics among the kids and the undeniable appeal of Martine's mystical attachment to animals keep the pages turning, regardless of plot contrivances. Animal-loving readers will enjoy this mild middle-grade thriller. (Fiction. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews

Narrator Adjoa Andoh brings the rhythm and speech patterns of South Africa to this story of six children marooned off the coast of Mozambique. Her undulating voice speeds and slows with the rhythm of St. John's story. Andoh brings intensity to her portrayals of Martine and her schoolmates as they struggle for survival and hope for rescue when a school trip goes dreadfully amiss. Listeners can hear the character of Martine gain confidence as she metamorphoses from reluctant student to quick-thinking life saver. The story weaves down-to-earth messages on environmental concern and self-awareness with a fantastical world in which a white giraffe and dolphins have remarkable abilities. A.R. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

OCTOBER 2008 - AudioFile