- Author
- Nicoletta Vallorani
- Title
- Like a Whale
- Translator
- English edition not available
- Publisher
- Salani, 2008
- Info
- 151 pages - £6.72
The value of “whaleness”
The dolphin Ciro saves (or maybe not) the whale Alice, orphaned following the escape of the mother in front of the harpoons of the whale hunters. Ciro takes care of Alice, and together they start looking for her lost mother. They will cross seas, oceans and troubles, chase Captain Ahab, meet Moby Dick and eventually come to discover a truth that will forever change their destinies.
A coming-of-age novel for children, very enjoyable even by adults, Like a whale benefits from a narrative on several levels: the main story, the stories narrated by Ciro to Alice, and the comments that the two protagonists exchange on the way in which the story is told by the dolphin, who seems unreliable and imaginative like all storytellers. Mirroring the novel Moby Dick by Herman Melville, this children’s book, exciting and easy to read, manages to be anything but trivial, and to offer simple but basic reflections even to the youngest readers. With a vein of pacifism and antimilitarism, as well as the irony typical of the Marche region-born author, it transmits values such as respect, love for freedom and friendship; and the importance of giving life a meaning.
A book good for parents even before they read it to their children.
Translation by Silvia Accorrà (edited by Sabrina Macchi)
