The Music of Dolphins

karen hesse

Mila creates headlines around the world when she is rescued from an unpopulated island off the coast of Florida. Now a teenager, she has been raised by dolphins from the age of four.

Researchers teach Mila language and music. She learns, too, about rules and expectations, about locked doors and broken promies, disappointment and betrayal.

But the more Mila finds out what it means to be human, the more deeply she longs for her ocean home.

Genres fictionyoung adultmiddle gradeanimalschildrensfantasyrealistic fictioncontemporaryadventurejuvenile

181 pages, Paperback

First published February 1,1996

Literary awards

keystone to reading book award, vermont golden dome book award,

This edition

Format: 181 pages, Paperback
Published: February 1, 1998 by Scholastic Paperbacks
ISBN: 9780590897983
ASIN: 0590897985
Language: English

About the author

karen hesse

Karen Hesse is an American author known for her children's and young adult literature, often set in historical contexts. She received the Newbery Medal for Out of the Dust (1997), a verse novel about a young girl enduring the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression. Hesse's works frequently tackle complex themes, as seen in Witness (2001), which explores the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in a 1920s Vermont town, and The Music of Dolphins (1996), which tells the story of a girl raised by dolphins. Her novel Stowaway (2000) is based on the real-life account of a boy aboard Captain Cook's Endeavour. Over her career, Hesse has received numerous accolades, including a MacArthur Fellowship in 2002 and the Phoenix Award for Letters from Rifka (1992).