Eventually, Kai returns, apparently unharmed, though parents and children alike will wonder why Worth’s stop-and-start storytelling never fully acknowledges the danger of children diving to frolic with orca, or the horror his family endures while he’s gone. A tour of a California aquarium teaches Kai and Irma l what they already suspect—captivity is hard on marine life. (“Oh, how I miss all the ocean commotion and all the creatures who live in it,” a sea crab says.) The efforts the kids and their teacher take to create a nonprofit specializing in sea pens are heartening, a demonstration of achievable real-world goals amid a chat-with-animals fantasy that edges, at times, toward the adult spirituality genre, with the cat declaring “Trust your intuitive sensory organ, that operates from the pineal gland.”
The book’s inspirational power is undercut, though, by uncertainties in the storytelling, with the setting and stakes unclear in the opening pages, plus some hard-to-parse sentences and occasional text-dense layouts. Some playful design elements, like text that swoops and splashes on the page, prove intuitive to read. Stacy Heller Budnick’s accomplished art joyously celebrates the tale’s many animals, plus its diverse roster of kids.
Takeaway: Splashy, slightly spiritual tale of kids saving marine life the right way.
Comparable Titles: Donna Sandstrom’s Orca Rescue, Fiona Barker’s Setsuko and the Song of the Sea.
Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: B+
Illustrations: A
Editing: B
Marketing copy: B+
