I like true stories about animals and human-animal interactions. Probably due to years of watching Discovery and National Geographic channels. That's why I like books such as A Lion Called Christian and Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World.
The book is a story about author Lynne Cox finding herself swimming with a baby grey whale off the California mainland during one of her training swim. Realizing that the baby whale has lost its mother during the annual migration north, she stayed with the whale and helped it to search for the mother, with the help of coast guards and fishermen around the area.
She swan for hours with the baby whale, which she later named Grayson. It ended with a touching reunion between the baby whale and its mother, before resuming their migration.
Throughout the book, Cox described her experience swimming with Grayson, the sounds she heard, the other aquatic wildlife she saw, the feelings she had for Grayson, etc. The way she described them was interesting and unfamiliar to me, as I don't swim and I only had experience of snorkeling during a company trip last year.
With only 124 pages, it's a lot shorter that the two books I mentioned earlier. The whole incident lasted for several hours, after all. It keeps you in a mild suspense as you worry for the whale's well-being and safety while hoping for the mother whale to show up throughout the book. It's almost until the end that you'll feel relieved as the whales were reunited.
This book should be read slowly, read the words and try to imagine yourself as the author, swimming through the waters and being with a baby whale. No reason to rush the book. 3.5 stars out of five.
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