The author created an interesting way to identify the individual whales. She created unique squiggly lines that stand for each whale's name as it sounds underwater. Jean Craighead George died before this book was finished so her two sons completed it. This book is about a native Eskimo boy in the late 1800s and his relationship with a bowhead whale that he sees being born. The boy is awed by the whales, but the whale industry is booming. The boy accidently contributes to the near extinction of the whales. He and his progenitors work to right the wrong. The book alternate between whale and human perspective.

Narrated by Christina Moore. Siku, a bowhead whale, outlives four generations of a Yupik Eskimo family that has vowed to protect him after a 19th-century ancestor inadvertently put a curse on the family by revealing a whaling ground to a Yankee whaler. The highlight of the audio version is the occasional whale sounds incorporated into the narrative which gives the story an added dimension. Ms George has always illuminated the power and wonder of nature for young readers. But I'm just not sure about the "spritual Indian" talk spoken by the Eskimo family's earliest generation. What would Debbie Reese say? Hmmm... ( )