How to Speak Dolphin by Ginny Rorby

Rorby, Ginny. (2015). How to Speak Dolphin. New York: Scholastic.

When I was looking for books to read for my blog, I was asking people for recommendations and one of my previous internship teachers was raving about this book she had found at the book fair the school had just had. How to Speak Dolphin  is a touching story of how a twelve year old girl, Lily, deals with her challenging four year old autistic brother Adam while her stepfather struggles with accepting Adam’s condition. Meanwhile, a baby dolphin is found sick and is sent to a rehabilitation center. When Don, Lily’s stepfather, finally rolls around to finding treatment for Adam, he is asked to help the baby dolphin, Nori, get better. Don finds that Adam is the happiest he has ever been around Nori and Don tries to keep Nori from returning home for Adam’s sake. The story continues to follow Lily and her family as they find more ways to help Adam and as Lily struggles with the hope that Nori will be returned to her family in the ocean.

This book serves many purposes; not only does Ginny Rorby shed light on how autism can affect people and their families, but it also shows younger kids how animals-especially dolphins- are kept in captivity. People do not think much about what happens behind the scenes at centers that provide swim-with dolphin session and dolphin shows, but How to Speak Dolphin brings it out into the open and really makes the reader think twice about it. Rorby really put passion into informing the masses.

Seeing the world through Lily’s eyes also makes the reader think about the problems they have to deal with every day and how they find solutions to those problems. Lily has her brother’s future practically on her shoulders and must conquer her fears to make his life better.  Each chapter brings a new way to empathize with Lily. Rorby did an excellent job of bringing this fictional girl’s mind to life. Rorby’s language and writing style allows the fourth to fifth grade target audience to easily to easily follow the storyline and empathize with all of the characters. The front cover depicts a young boy and girl sitting in a boat and reaching out to a dolphin, which invites potential readers in.

I really enjoyed this book and would use it in a fourth or fifth grade classroom. As I take more classes in learning how to be a good teacher, I think of the kinds of assignments I would give my future students. I would use How to Speak Dolphin for a writing assignment/ project that asked students to find a fiction book that was fun to read (the life of a twelve year old girl) and also had a real underlying issue (treatment of animals in captivity). Then I would have them write about it: did they learn anything about the real world issue? How do they feel about that issue? Etc.