What do You think about Grayson (2006)?
Long on the to be read list I finally had time to read this one. When the author was 17 years old and preparing for long distance swim races, while swimming in the ocean in Seal Beach, California, she was followed by a baby gray whale.The baby whale could not find his mother. Realizing it was up to her to rescue the whale, she swam many miles paving a safe route for the baby in the prayer and hope that his mother could be reunited.This is lyrically written and a testimony to courage and the love of nature.Recommended!
—Linda Lipko
If you're an animal lover or just enjoy nature in general, I recommend this to you. The author's talent for vivid description was what I liked most about this book, which is about her encounter with a baby whale while training off the California coast (she had swum the English Channel by the time she was 15 years old). She seems to have remembered every detail of those hours when she swam with the baby gray whale, searching for its mother; I enjoyed reading about the many animals she encountered and the colors and movement of the water at different depths and distances from the shore.Less enjoyable were the author's pauses in the narrative to philosophize to the reader, and at times directly to the baby whale. Grayson, don't go. We'll find your mother. Be patient. Sometimes you just have to believe. Sometimes that belief gets you where you want to go, sometimes it carries you a little closer, and then you discover another way. This is the type of thing that makes me throw myself on the floor and pretend to be in my death throes. Or at least make rude noises with my mouth.She was also a bit heavy-handed with the similes.While the above complaints did knock my rating down a couple stars, I was moved by the story and was generally glad I read it. If it were a longer book, I might not feel that way, but I liked more than I didn't like in the 148 pages she took to tell her story.
—Emily
"This captivating best seller tells the true story of a miraculous encounter between a teenage girl and a baby whale off the coast of California.""Together [Cox and Grayson] journey to the eventual mother-and-child reunion through a fantastical world of giant ocean sunfish, bat rays with five-foot wingspans and a school of dolphins."I read this book at one go, mostly because it's not very dense, nor is it very captivating. The plot is well-known, of course: the baby gray whale has become separated from its mother, and will die if it can't find her again. The author helps.I was offput by the New Age drivel woven through the story: "My thoughts were becoming negative."I knew that if I changed my thoughts, I could change the way I felt about what I was experiencing.""Maybe if I think very hard his mother will hear me. Maybe she will hear my feelings with her sonar. Maybe she will hear me calling her through the water. Maybe brain waves can travel faster and longer through the water. Please, come this way, over here! I shouted with my mind.. . .Please hear me, Grayson's mother, swimming out there. If it's you swimming near the Huntington Brach jetty, please swim this wa: Grayson is here. Your son is here."I suppose I sound like Scrooge -- bah humbug! to New Age Thought and attracting what you need out of the Universe. And actually, I do believe in all that. It just somehow sounded daft and pretentious in the book. Feel free to decide I was just feeling Scroogish when I read it, and ignore this scathing review. After all, it's a best seller, so millions other than me must have thought is was charming, sweet, mystical, and quite spiritual.
—Kate
