ADELINA’S WHALES

Photojournalist Sobol contrasts ten-year-old Adelina Mayoral’s life in a Mexican fishing village with that of the gray whales that spend three months in the water just offshore. Adelina’s grandfather was among the first to realize the whales were friendly—he recounts the day a whale bumped his boat, over and over, until he realized it was simply curious, not aggressive. Now visitors come to see and even touch the whales. Scientists study them. (An introduction says that the planned development of a saltworks would have endangered the whales’ habitat, but that an international protest initiated by Mexican environmental groups saved them.) The tone of the text describes both the shack where Adelina lives and the richness of her life with her family and the whales, without lapsing into sentimentality. Beautifully composed photos complete the text. Accessible on many levels, it gives a personal face to conservation. (Nonfiction. 4-10)