Customer Reviews

Whale Song: A Novel

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

11-year-old Sarah and her parents, Daniella (an artist), and Jack (a marine biologist), move to Canada from the States. Sarah is not happy about the move but she starts warming up to the idea when she sees their beautiful new house located right along the beach that has an amazing view. She's even more happy when she meets Goldie. The two quickly become best friends. Sarah loves Goldie's family, especially her grandmother who they call Nana most of the time. Goldie is of Indian descent (along with most of the other people in the town where Sarah is living), so Sarah learns new traditions and tales from the past.

Sarah develops a crush on a boy in her class, Adam. She also gets bullied by a girl named Annie. But for the most part she likes her new home. She especially loves going out on the schooner with her parents and listening to the whales, which are Sarah and her mother's new love.

Not long after being in their new home, Sarah's mom starts having fainting spells. It is discovered that she has a rare condition that is slowly wasting her away. When Sarah finds this out she's devastated. Unfortunately, there's nothing anyone can do for her mother. Her doctors only give her about two to three more years to live, max.

When Daniella eventually ends up in a coma, something happens and she dies. Jack (Sarah's father) is arrested for pulling the plug on the machines that were keeping his wife alive. Sadly, after his long-awaited court date, the jury finds him guilty and he's sentenced to ten years in prison.

Sarah has to go back to the U.S. with her grandparents and leave everything behind once again. She tries to block out all that has happened to her back in Canada, even the good things. But when she's older (in her 20's), someone comes along and opens her floodgates (so to speak), and she once again remembers everything, including how her mother died.

This was an incredibly hard book to write a summary of. So much happens in WHALE SONG that it's hard to cover the basic things in a short summary. Just go read the book and you'll find out how wonderful it is! It's completely heart wrenching because you know all along that Daniella is dying. But the whole book is just amazing.

I seriously never wanted to put it down. Ms. Tardif's use of words is incredible, like when she's talking about the killer whales or describing scenery. They just flow so easily across every page. My heartstrings were being pulled the entire time and I absolutely loved it. If you like these type of books, I seriously recommend getting yourself a copy. You seriously won't be disappointed. And yes, I know I just overused the word seriously -- sorry!

Reviewed by: Breanna F.

Whale Song is the first book I have read by Canadian author Cheryl Kaye Tardif. But it certainly won't be my last! I loved this book! It was wonderfully easy to read and had such believable characters that your heart ached along with them throughout the story. A new life on the west coast of Canada bring adventures to young Sarah. I could easily relate to Sarah's character as a young girl growing up in Canada. The connection to the ocean and the theme of the whales throughout the book made a wonderful ebb and flow to the story. The feeling of loss in the book is profound which Tardif is able to convey through her perfect choice of words. While the story contains several losses, there is also a wonderful message to the book. By the time I had put the book down, I found myself examining some choices in my own life where forgiveness has been denied. This is a Canadian author who should be added to everyone's Author to Watch list! I can't wait to read another of Tardif's books!

The title of this book leaped out at me from its striking cover, but when I started reading, I was captivated by how meaningful the title was to this very moving story. Cheryl Kaye Tardif's words, scenes and characters flowed through the pages so smoothly I almost forgot I was reading. I felt as though I were in Canada with the characters.

This is a story about an eleven-year-old girl, Sarah Richardson, who moves with her family to Vancouver Island, Canada where her father, a biologist, has taken a new job studying killer whales. Sarah makes friends with a neighbor girl, Goldie Dixon, who is a Nootka Indian. Before Sarah moved there, a tragedy occurred in Goldie's family; it involved her older brother, and there is a mysterious tie-in to this novel's title through that occurrence.

Goldie's wise granddmother, Nana, steeped in Indian tradition, plays a major role in Sarah's life, and Goldie's entire family becomes friends with Sarah's family as the story unfolds. When Sarah's mother becomes ill, a boy who has a crush on Sarah gives her a lovely whale figurine which is another tie-in to the title.

What happened in Goldie's family before Sarah came to live there? How does Sarah lose her mother ... and then her father, in uniquely different ways? How does she reclaim them both ...in uniquely different ways? And how does Sarah lose her memory? Why can't she remember the events of the most tragic day in her life? And just how does a whale figure into the plot? Do people who are drowned truly come back as whales, as the Nootkas believe?

That's a long list of questions, I know, but this author answers them with such dexterity, she'll leave you breathless. And, finally, the question that begs to be answered: What IS a Whale Song and how does it help Sarah reclaim her mother?

To get the answers to those questions, you must read this intriguing, exciting book. It will tug at your heart strings, stirring your emotions like no other.

One doesn't simply read a Tardif story, one experiences it! Among the very few authors I've ever said that about is my all-time favorite Pat Conroy. Like him, Cheryl Kaye Tardif has a definite way with words.

This is not only a coming-of-age story, it's a love story, a mystery and a family drama in one clear, concise package. Though billed as women's fiction or general fiction, this novel will appeal to YA and all generations--just as "Harry Potter" does.

"Whale Song" is a bestseller in Canada and the US. It made both lists on Amazon shortly after it was released. I'm not surprised that a film producer is looking closely at this book. In the front of my copy, Tardif wrote: Dare to Dream, and Dream Big! I certainly hope her Big Dream comes true and this novel becomes a movie!

My only regret is that I didn't discover this author sooner. She has two other novels out, "Divine Intervention" and "The River." But she says she "holds this one close to her heart." Well, it's now close to my heart, too, as I'm sure it will be to yours. I look forward to reading those other two, but I can't wait to read the one she's currently working on; it's a nonfiction story about the tragic murder of her younger brother and his friends, The Porch Monkeys ... a story of the lost, the forgiven.

Captivating story w/ complex characters covering a lot of issues in a beautiful natural setting . Told through the perspective of 11-yr-old Sarah. Sarah leaves her home in Wyoming when her father is transferred to Vancouver Island. He is a marine biolgist & has a great offer to study the whales in the area. Sarah leaves behind her best friend and everything she knew but discovers a new life. Some hard challenges -- adjusting to being "the white girl" in a small community of mostly Nootka Indians, experiencing the new school and bullying. At the same time she is welcomed by her neighbors Goldie and Nana and learns their native spiritual ways, makes a new best friend and finds a way to understand and forgive Annie, the bully. A few years later the ultimate tragedy -- the death of her mother, altho' terminally ill, the end may not have been natural. Sarah is very bitter and detached for years after this loss but through her family of friends she eventually finds redemption.

This book is truly one of the best books I have ever read. Once I picked it up..I never put it down until it was finished. I have told lots of my friends to read it and will be telling many more!!!

In the summer of 1977, eleven-year-old Sarah Richardson is filled with trepidation and resentment when her father's new job forces her to leave her home and best friend in Wyoming to relocate in the remote town of Bamfield on Vancouver Island. But these feelings fade when she sees her gorgeous new house overlooking the ocean and befriends an Indian (a term commonly used for First Nations people in 1977) girl named Goldie. Of course, her idyllic summer with her parents and Goldie doesn't last. Once school begins, Sarah endures long, painful lessons about bullying, racial hatred, and family tragedy.

Cheryl Kaye Tardif's WHALE SONG is an unusual mystery. Although the story opens with an adult Sarah reflecting back on the summer that changed her life, Tardif eases into young Sarah's point of view as the story unfolds, turning the book into a young adult novel. But then adult Sarah slides briefly back into the story with ominous foreshadowing about events she wished she'd seen coming.

The other unique aspect is that the mystery doesn't occur until two thirds into the book. Certainly, the reader feels tension building among main characters and a grim situation inevitably spiraling out of control. But death, a police investigation, and murder charge don't occur until the reader knows the Richardson family so well that we feel their anguish. Some mystery fans might loathe the pacing of events, yet it's important to understand that mystery is only one facet of this multi-layered story. Crime might not be center stage in WHALE SONG, however, it's essential to the story.

Cross-genre novels are hard to pigeonhole, and this one will be a challenge for librarians and booksellers. WHALE SONG is an elegantly written, heartbreaking blend of friendships lost and gained, tragedy, Nootka spirituality, death, guilt, punishment, and forgiveness. This is a lot to incorporate into one novel, but Tardif does it beautifully in a mere 199 pages. If you want something different in a mystery, WHALE SONG is a compelling story you won't forget any time soon.

When Cheryl Tardif's publisher invited me to read Whale Song, I admit to beginning with a certain amount of trepidation. After all, the novel is YA, aimed at young female readers, and I'm 66 and male. Talk about polar opposites.

I'm so glad I didn't let those things deter me. Cheryl Tardif is wonderfully talented. Her prose is clean, so economical I found the act of reading esthetically pleasing in and of itself. And yes, just as you would suspect, beneath this technically superior surface lurks a story of great intensity, passion, and drama. There is much more to Whale Song than smooth writing. Even though the outcome is foretold in various chapter endings, the story still hooked me, pulled me ever forward, toward the fateful conclusion. It's a book about life and death. I loved it.

Recommended for anyone who can remember the pain of adolescence. To those of you who are there now, Whale Song might make the journey a little easier. For those who can only remember, Whale Song will bring a tear to your eye and make you wish you could go back and do it all again, no matter how hard your own journey was.

Thank you Mrs. Cheryl Tardif for this lovely story. It was a gentle reminder for me of those 'life' things I sometimes forget, like how to trust. I found myself going back to experiences I had as an younger girl, and so felt a real connection with the main character. It was an inspiration to read and a story I have already passed on to friends, young and old! Thank you!

Whale Song is by far my new favorite book. I love it. There are so many dimensions to this book that are breath taking.
I read this book two days ago. it took me 7 hours and the only break I took was to eat breakfast, and if my mom would have let me I would have read it while eating.
This book is for everyone, that is everyone who can handle a good cry. Make sure you have a well stocked box of tissues , because this book needs a whole other catagory than just 'tearjerker'.
I sat on my bed and not willing to stop reading for a moment, I substituded pillows for tissues, after that I had some sheets to wash, because they were literally soalked with tears.

Whale Song has powerful messages that anyone can relate to, weather they were in love, lost a loved one, or been through a tough time.

This is one of the books I'll read over and over again (I have already read it 2 and 1/2 times).
If you add one book to your reading list I recommmend this one by far.

Hello,

I read Whale Song and I really loved it. I like how Cheryl Kaye Tardif tied everything in together- bullying, abuse, racism and loss. I finished Whale Song the weekend i got it. It really brought back memories for me. The book just reached out to me and I always wanted to turn the page. Cheryl Kaye Tardif is an inspiration to me, for I love writing stories in my spare time. I would like to write just like her someday. The story was magical and beautiful and the there was a unique plot and very rich details. I hope very much that Cheryl Kaye Tardif writes lots more books!

By Vanessa