Karen Hesse received a Newberry Medal for Out of the Dust. For me, Out of the Dust was a gut wrenchingly beautiful novel. Today I read The Music of Dolphins, which I chose only vaguely recognizing the authors name at the time. (I'd make for an awful librarian, other than loving to devour books greedily.)
The Publishers Weekly quote on the back says it best, The Music of Dolphins "poignantly explores...what it means to be human."
Mila, named for the Spanish word 'milagro' or miracle, is found; she is a feral child. All but the introduction to her rescue, or from her perspective, her capture, is in her own words. Since she is acquiring language, her language begins simple and rittled with errors but it gains complexity as Mila learns and acquires more language. Yet, with those simple words Karen Hesse paints the experiences and immense emotional intellegence of Mila.
As an outsider to human culture, Mila sees people from an outsider's critical lense. She cannot understand some actions and emotions; she sees through all hypocracy and misses her dolphin family immensely. The degrees of separation between people in space (walls, property, doors) and emotion (anger, stand-off-ishness) are foreign to her dolphin life and lead her to feel lonely and isolated.
You will love this book. Your students need this book. Read it to them.
