The Boy Who Borrowed a Whale Song

Ten-year-old Jalen knows the sounds of the Oregon harbor better than almost anyone: buoy bells, gull cries, boat engines, and the low calls of whales beyond the breakwater. But when he finds a warm shell beneath the aquarium pier, it sings in the voice of his mother, away on a marine-research job. Jalen cannot bear to give it up. Each listening brings back a memory he wants to keep. Each time, the shell's whale song grows stronger. Soon whales are turning toward the busy shipping channel, where boats and bright tourist promises make the water dangerous. With his sharp-eyed little sister Mina, Jalen must learn what the shell is really taking before a harbor-tour owner turns its call into a show. Set in a foggy Pacific harbor, this tender speculative adventure follows two siblings as they choose between borrowed comfort and a harder, truer kind of connection.