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Whales To See The is a human survival story about "special needs," autistic teenagers on a sea-going outing, like same author's better-known classic novel of teenaged rebellion, Bless the Beasts & Children, was. If you liked Bless the Beasts, about Arizona's annual buffalo hunt, you'll like this gray whale migration tale, too, aimed at slightly younger juvenile readers. Whales To See The is also one of the very first popular novels for Young Adults ever written about autistic teens.
When Dee-Dee and John and the other special students in their small class learn they may go out on a boat to watch the semi-annual grey whale migration off the California coast, they are beside themselves with excitement. But their excitement, if they can't control it, may be the one thing that prevents them being allowed to on on this trip. For Dee-Dee and John and their classmates are neurologically disturbed children who have been brain-damaged, autistic kids, or born with some motor dysfunction. While they suffer emotionally from their disabilities, intellectually they are as capable as any other teenagers their own age.
Despite forecasts of poor weather, Miss Fishes' class goes out on the big sightseeing boat, The Protector, from San Diego, along with another class, a class of normal children. At first, the normal kids are casually cruel to the disturbed ones, until bad weather makes them all firghtened and seasick; near disaster, followed by the sudden appearance of a big pod of grey whales, brings about a suspenseful and satisfying conclusion to this sea-borne tale.
Reviews --
"I'm afraid the title of this book may be confusing and unappealing to young readers, which would be a shame since the book itself is exciting and readable....The Swarthouts handle their characters with a fine sensitivity, but what they do even better is to present prejudice as, I think, it really is. They show prejudice at its cruelest, and they do this from several viewpoints so that the reader, like it or not, has to identify with all parties. The book has much to recommend it--immediacy, originality, humor and, in the passages involving the whales, great beauty. 'Under the reaches of the sea the pod moved northward in the night. It needed no star to steer by. No storm or tide could turn it from its course. It was composed of living things...which would guide and protect and care for one another until together, together, all had climbed the ocean to their journey's end.' "
Betsy Byars, New York Times Book Review
"In spite of the authors' last minute rush for a sunny close, this cheerfully horatory tale about a day's whale-sighting excursion off California by a class of neurologically handicapped children makes its points with humor and warmth....The Swarthouts manage to incorporate the tensions typical of the varied disabilities and a common sense of alienation into the special personalities of John and Dee-dee. Even with the continuing subcutaneous preachments, it's an entertaining outing." Kirkus Reviews
Genre: Children's Fiction
When Dee-Dee and John and the other special students in their small class learn they may go out on a boat to watch the semi-annual grey whale migration off the California coast, they are beside themselves with excitement. But their excitement, if they can't control it, may be the one thing that prevents them being allowed to on on this trip. For Dee-Dee and John and their classmates are neurologically disturbed children who have been brain-damaged, autistic kids, or born with some motor dysfunction. While they suffer emotionally from their disabilities, intellectually they are as capable as any other teenagers their own age.
Despite forecasts of poor weather, Miss Fishes' class goes out on the big sightseeing boat, The Protector, from San Diego, along with another class, a class of normal children. At first, the normal kids are casually cruel to the disturbed ones, until bad weather makes them all firghtened and seasick; near disaster, followed by the sudden appearance of a big pod of grey whales, brings about a suspenseful and satisfying conclusion to this sea-borne tale.
Reviews --
"I'm afraid the title of this book may be confusing and unappealing to young readers, which would be a shame since the book itself is exciting and readable....The Swarthouts handle their characters with a fine sensitivity, but what they do even better is to present prejudice as, I think, it really is. They show prejudice at its cruelest, and they do this from several viewpoints so that the reader, like it or not, has to identify with all parties. The book has much to recommend it--immediacy, originality, humor and, in the passages involving the whales, great beauty. 'Under the reaches of the sea the pod moved northward in the night. It needed no star to steer by. No storm or tide could turn it from its course. It was composed of living things...which would guide and protect and care for one another until together, together, all had climbed the ocean to their journey's end.' "
Betsy Byars, New York Times Book Review
"In spite of the authors' last minute rush for a sunny close, this cheerfully horatory tale about a day's whale-sighting excursion off California by a class of neurologically handicapped children makes its points with humor and warmth....The Swarthouts manage to incorporate the tensions typical of the varied disabilities and a common sense of alienation into the special personalities of John and Dee-dee. Even with the continuing subcutaneous preachments, it's an entertaining outing." Kirkus Reviews
Genre: Children's Fiction
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