The Face in the Wave

by Joanne Rode

Overview

Greydon is a thirteen-year-old boy who loves the sea and the creatures in it. He volunteers at Marine World and becomes convinced that the dolphins should not be kept in captivity, and devises a plan to help free them.
While surfing he gets a glimpse of an exotic creature that he thinks is a mermaid, and when he tells his friends they act like he’s crazy. His brother tells him to drop the mermaid idea. He withdraws from his brother and friends and continues his search to find what he saw. He encounters the mermaid and realizes her safety depends on her never being discovered, especially by Marine World. He tries to protect her from the fate of the dolphins by keeping her a secret. The secret becomes a wedge between him and his friends and brother.
Greydon was born with a caul, and according to legend, he can communicate telepathically. He is able to communicate with the mermaid in this way. They develop a close friendship and share many adventures. Greydon finds out that the mermaid has been seen, and is being hunted by the director of Marine World. Secrecy is no longer keeping her safe.
Greydon’s mother is in the hospital and needs a lung transplant. Her illness is a constant concern, and her fate is intertwined with the fate of the mermaid. Greydon’s desire to protect the mermaid collides with a reality that he never expected, and holds a secret he vows never to reveal.
This story is about cetacean rights, the desire to protect those we love, and the hard choices one has to make when faced with a difficult ethical dilemma.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940155999430
Publisher:	Joanne Rode
Publication date:	02/28/2019
Sold by:	Smashwords
Format:	eBook
File size:	249 KB
Age Range:	12 Years

About the Author

Joanne Rode is a retired librarian living in Los Angeles, California. Twenty years ago she started working as a children’s librarian while living on Maui. The births of her grandchildren drew her back to the mainland, where she continued her career as a librarian in Orange County, then later in Los Angeles. She now enjoys using her free time to write.

Editorial Reviews

2018-11-20

Rode's debut middle-grade novel tells the story of a dolphin aficionado who discovers a mermaid.

Thirteen-year-old Greydon Hubbard's mother is in desperate need of a new lung, and the situation is causing a great deal of stress for his evolutionarybiologist father and his uncle, a medical doctor. Greydon distracts himself by volunteering in the dolphin area of the Marine World zoological park.Recently, while surfing, Greydon saw a pair of dolphins in the ocean—but they weren't alone: "A girl's face briefly appeared between the two dolphins, a luminous face with piercing blue-topaz eyes." Greydon's older brother, Jake, didn't see the girl, but Greydon knows in his heart that she was real. Indeed, he becomes convinced that he's seen a real-life mermaid. His ailing mother encourages him in this idea, but his brother and his friends think that it's insane. Greydon sees the girl again, however, and soon learns that he can communicate with her telepathically—a power that his mother attributes to the circumstances surrounding his birth. Can he protect the mermaid from humankind? Rode's prose is highly descriptive, but it's also propulsive, moving the story along with the speed of a surfboard on ocean waves: "The ocean pulsated with a powerful force beneath Greydon's board….Skimming along the top with exhilarating swiftness, he pivoted right and was surrounded by a curl of vivid blue seclusion and soft spray." Along the way, the author has the protagonist—and the reader—grapple with various moral issues involving Greydon's mother's health, his father's and uncle's scientific work, and the treatment of dolphins at Marine World. Rode makes sure that young readers fully understand the similarities between dolphins and humans, as well.

A thoughtful oceanic novel with a touch of fantasy.

Kirkus Reviews