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Published by Henry Holt and Company, New York
Copyright 1995
Library of Congress Catalog Card 94-43895 - ISBN 0-8050-3306-8
Fourteen-year old Paolo and his father, a naturalist, live in an isolated village in the Argentine region of Patagonia, where Paolo dreams of swimming with whales. Reaching the age when his father promised to teach him to swim with whales, Paolo is crushed when his father announces that Paolo must go away to school in San Francisco and live with his mother instead.
Paolo feels unsupported by his friends and uncertain of his future. Paolo's parents aren't divorced, but his mother left soon after his birth because she could not live on the Patagonian peninsula, where whales, sea lions, and guanacos outnumber the people. Paolo struggles with his parents' dissolving marriage and his desire to remain near the whales that annually migrate to the waters near his Patagonian home.
Ella weaves a wonderful story combining Patagonian wildlife with an accurate take on what it feels like to be an eighth-grade boy falling in love with the girl your best friend loves. Add to that some hilarious descriptions of the perils of keeping a Ilamalike guanaco for a pet. Not even Martha Stewart could domesticate an animal that takes comfort in a dung pile. |
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