What are some things you're really interested in? Hobbies you love? Topics you could talk about all day long?

Iris loves building and fixing radios, and when she learns about Blue 55, she immediately wants to know everything about him, too.

Her grandmother has other ideas, though, and the two of them run off to an Alaskan cruise in an attempt to see if Iris can communicate with Blue-and if they can communicate through their communal grief for Iris's grandfather.Ĭategories: ability, belonging, STEM, grief The researchers tell her when Blue should be swimming by their research station, but Iris's parents won't let her go.

The creation is an achievement in itself, but it's not enough: Iris wants to see it in action. By collaborating with the researchers who study Blue and asking her fellow students for help, Iris is able to create a faux–whale song that falls within Blue's range. This decibel range is so much higher than the range of whales around him that Blue 55 has been unable to communicate with his species-a woe Iris understands well. This understanding of sound waves really comes in handy when Iris's science class learns about a whale dubbed Blue 55, a reference to the decibels at which he sings. She my not be able to hear, but she can feel their vibration, and that tells her what needs work. The bright part of Iris's days is fixing and building old radios.

Since her grandfather passed, though, her grandmother has kept to herself, and Iris feels like the one person she can communicate flawlessly with is the one person she doesn't know how to reach. Her hearing family is mostly fluent in sign language-her dad could use a few more lessons-but she's always had a really special connection with her deaf grandparents. She goes to a mostly-hearing school, so she spends her days away from her fellow deaf friends, trying to effectively communicate with the kids around her who don't know sign language.

A song for a whale book