Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
44th out of 155 books
—
224 voters
The Music Of Dolphins
by
Karen Hesse
A girl raised by dolphins must choose between two worlds in this critically acclaimed novel about what it means to be a human being.
Paperback, 181 pages
Published
February 1st 1998
by Scholastic Paperbacks
(first published February 1st 1996)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
3,000)
Simply put, this is one of the very Greatest books that I have ever read in my entire life. Karen Hesse's genius interpretations of life lived like an animal gave me constant, visible chills, resounding throughout my body like almost nothing that I have ever seen. The writing is so perfect that I don't want to spoil it by writing too much in this review; I will say just that it is one of the most awe-inspiring masterpieces of literature that I have ever experienced, and in an insanely full year...more
I LOVE THIS BOOK! at first I liked it, in the middle it was okay, but not going like I had hoped, and at the end my heart was broken and put back together again. I love this book! I cried so hard at the end. I don't know why it got to me so much, but it was such a sad story. I don't know how to explain it, I'm still speechless. I will definitely be reading this book again and it's such a fast read! I love how he put the book together, starting out with Huge text when she didn't know much and get...more
This is by far the worst work of fiction I have ever read. Feral children are almost impossible to rehabilitate. And it's more than a stretch to ask readers to suspend their disbelief with regard to a girl who's spent most of her life in saltwater. Her skin would have become so waterlogged that it would have developed open soars and rotted off.
This book is nothing more than a very very cheap knock-off of Flowers for Algernon.
This book is nothing more than a very very cheap knock-off of Flowers for Algernon.
4 likes · like · see review
I did not like this book at all. There are soooo many things wrong with this book. I only read this book because I participated in a reading team competition and this was one of the required books.
First, this book was designed for two-year-olds. I was shocked that it was chosen for a reading team competition. The font was huge and it was about triple spaced. Also, there was a poor use of grammar and sentence structure. The book was told through the eyes of Mila, the main character, and she talk...more
First, this book was designed for two-year-olds. I was shocked that it was chosen for a reading team competition. The font was huge and it was about triple spaced. Also, there was a poor use of grammar and sentence structure. The book was told through the eyes of Mila, the main character, and she talk...more
1 like · like · see review
Another book that I think I would have liked at the intended age of the audience, but didn't do a lot for me now. That is, had I been able to tear myself away from my normal genre of accidentally-transported-into-the-past novels. It's about a young girl marooned on an island in a storm at age four, who ends up being raised by a pod of dolphins. She is later discovered and taken to a research facility. She learns to speak to humans and becomes entranced with music, but then hits a point where she...more
A wonderful book to read with children. Fifth graders are old enough to appreciate the use of print (fint, size, context) to create meaning. As the main character in this book learns English, the print gets smaller, and then there is a shift and the print begins to get larger. Why? When she thinks about her dolphin life the writing is fluid, poetic and in italics. Even with her simple language this character creates worlds of meaning and beautiful character portraits. Then there is the last line...more
1 like · like · see review
Mila is a dolphin girl. Sha live in the Ocean for many years until she was found by the human. She was brought back and was teached english. She thought everything in this world is great and wonderful and loved her dolphin music. She is very smart and learn really fast. Unlike her other friend Shay. Shay is a sweet and gentle girl mila say but she don't talk much. Mila alway wanted to make her happy. So does the docter that teach and care for her Doctor Beack.
Everything in Mila's eye are sweet...more
Everything in Mila's eye are sweet...more
I kind of went back and forth on this one but in the end I'm settling on 3 stars. I thought parts of the book were incredibly engaging and some of the writing was amazing. There were moments where it was tough to put the book down and when I did I'd basically be asking myself a ton of questions about who we are as people and what makes someone human. I think Hesse does a beautiful job of young adults (the audience for this book) to ask questions about who we are and what it means to be human. I...more
Hesse, Karen. The Music of Dolphins. New York: Scholastic Signature, 1996. Print.
Genre: Children’s Fiction/Animal Tale
The Music of Dolphins by Karen Hesse is a delightful story about a young girl who is raised by a pod of dolphins after surviving a plane crash. This story is told from a first and third person point of view. In the beginning of the book the sentences are short and there are no full paragraphs. This choice by the author was used to illustrate the main characters inability to form...more
Genre: Children’s Fiction/Animal Tale
The Music of Dolphins by Karen Hesse is a delightful story about a young girl who is raised by a pod of dolphins after surviving a plane crash. This story is told from a first and third person point of view. In the beginning of the book the sentences are short and there are no full paragraphs. This choice by the author was used to illustrate the main characters inability to form...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Jun 02, 2010
Sarah
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
grades 5-7
Shelves:
children-realistic,
audio
Told in journal format, this is a story about a teenage girl who is found in the ocean off the coast of Cuba by the Coast Guard. They name her Mila (Spanish for ‘miracle’) and discover that she has been living with dolphins for most of her life. She is placed into a special hospital/school where she can learn how communicate and behave like a human.
Mila’s progress is clearly documented in her journal entries; her entries start off very short with little vocabulary, then grow longer as she learns...more
Mila’s progress is clearly documented in her journal entries; her entries start off very short with little vocabulary, then grow longer as she learns...more
Karen Hesse tried something admirable with this book: Write a heartwarming/breaking story of a girl trying to figure out how she fits in the world. Add some linguistics to spice things up and a few other characters we're supposed to like, and voila! Great book, right?
Not so much. Karen Hesse uses some unusual typography meant to help illustrate the "progress" of Mila, as she learns human language and culture. Unfortunately, instead of seeming unique and creative it adds to the chore of reading t...more
Not so much. Karen Hesse uses some unusual typography meant to help illustrate the "progress" of Mila, as she learns human language and culture. Unfortunately, instead of seeming unique and creative it adds to the chore of reading t...more
I picked this book up when I was in fourth grade. It was then that I decided I wanted to become an author myself.
Yes, a little girl wouldn't be able to survive out at sea for so long. But isn't that the beauty of fiction? Do readers of vampire novels stop and think "How come their skin isn't rotting away, if they're dead?" No, of course they don't. So, you really shouldn't spoil a good story with rational thoughts.
Anyway, back to the book. It's one of my favorite stories from when I was younger....more
Yes, a little girl wouldn't be able to survive out at sea for so long. But isn't that the beauty of fiction? Do readers of vampire novels stop and think "How come their skin isn't rotting away, if they're dead?" No, of course they don't. So, you really shouldn't spoil a good story with rational thoughts.
Anyway, back to the book. It's one of my favorite stories from when I was younger....more
This book is about a girl, Mila, who knows not very much because she was raised as a dolphin but was found, taught and brought into the world to learn English. Mila shows her improvement in her change from dolphin girl to earth girl. She tries and wants to give up but getter better and stronger.
I can connect to Mila for trying so hard and having it pay it in the end but just mssing what you use to do because you've done it for so long. Somethings never change and you cant stop people from doing...more
I can connect to Mila for trying so hard and having it pay it in the end but just mssing what you use to do because you've done it for so long. Somethings never change and you cant stop people from doing...more
early interest in wild children: story of a girl who was raised with dolphins, "rescued," and re-integrated with human society. at first she displays an eager aptitude, like, she always knew she had something those dolphins didn't! & then, inevitably, a depressed sense of loss, like, she always knew she had something those humans didn't. first-person narration exploits her development, makes an eight year old linguaphile feel like a real scientist. there's a brief description of the way she...more
This was a sweet heart-warming story that helped pass a grey afternoon. 'Mila' was enjoying her sunny day, traipsing along on shore when another plane was over head, only this was a different type of plane, and it was hovering above her beach. she ran, but the man that jumped out of the plane was to fast and caught her.
So starts this precious novella. 'Mila' as she was named was taken into study and housed with another "feral" girl found only months apart.
The story is a quirky look into a story...more
So starts this precious novella. 'Mila' as she was named was taken into study and housed with another "feral" girl found only months apart.
The story is a quirky look into a story...more
The draw for this book is the form. The main character is a feral child who has spent her formative years with a pod of dolphins. She is ‘rescued’ and taught to function as a human. Her journal entries are simple, the text large. Her language becomes increasingly complex and more correct. That’s an interesting evolution. She is able to express her thoughts and feelings more and more clearly. But what she feels is a dissatisfaction with being human. She wants to go back to the sea. And her langua...more
Poignant, lyrically written story of a wild child who struggles not to learn language but to feel a part of our world. A Cuban refuge stranded on an island and essentially raised by dolphins (the premise sounds way hokier in summary than practice; Hesse handles it masterfully) is discovered and brought to an institute where she essentially becomes a test subject. With narration by a protagonist who is rapidly developing as she tells her story, _Music_ calls to mind "Flowers for Algernon." My onl...more
1 like · like · see review
Read this one in fourth or fifth grade. It's the story of a girl who is raised by dolphins after the boat she was on between Cuba and Florida capsizes. She's spent about a decade living with the dolphins when she is discovered by a team of scientists. Termed a "feral child", she is taken to some kind of facility where she is taught to read, write, speak and otherwise act like a person and not a dolphin. The story is told from her perspective, in journal entries. The cool thing is that the size o...more
I read this book when I was eight years old, and I loved it to pieces. I was old enough then to grasp the significance of how, when Mila (a girl washed away at the age of four and raised by a pod of dolphins) was trying to speak English and interact with the humans who "rescued" her, the font was enormous and the grammar choppy, and as she learned more and more, the font grew smaller and narrower. When all she knew was dolphins, Mila's world was stunningly open and beautiful, and when she learne...more
Mar 18, 2013
Boy
rated it
2 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Elementary school children
Recommended to Boy by:
My 5th Grade Teacher
I read this book several years ago, when I was in 5th grade. I loved the book as an 10-year-old girl, and the concept of living and being one with the dolphins had me captive. Older readers will definitely find a lot of things wrong with Karen Hesse's depiction of feral children and other technicalities (which shouldn't really matter much considering this is a work of utter FICTION for CHILDREN and before even reading such a book we should start by removing the sticks from our butts to get into...more
Music of the dolphins is about a teenage girl names Mila.She was found swimming with dolphins. Turns out the dolphins had raised her, after a plane crashed when she was 4, killing her brother and mother.
After they found her they took her to an institution. A day after a doctor name Dr.Beck and his assitant Sandy teach Mila how to be human.
The more they teach her and keep her locked up the more she longs for her ocean home. About a month after Mila has a special bond with Dr. Beck and sandy. Then...more
After they found her they took her to an institution. A day after a doctor name Dr.Beck and his assitant Sandy teach Mila how to be human.
The more they teach her and keep her locked up the more she longs for her ocean home. About a month after Mila has a special bond with Dr. Beck and sandy. Then...more
After a plane crash off the coast of Cuba, a four-year-old survives, nurtured by dolphins. At adolescence, the girl is "rescued" by the Coast Guard and turned over to a scientist who has a government grant to study the part language acquisition plays in socialization. Mila, the otherworldly "dolphin girl," is enthusiastic to please, learning to speak words and write her thoughts on a computer, but gradually she understands that she is a prisoner "in the net of humans." She begins to lose ground,...more
This book is about a girl who got lost as a child and then was saved by Dolphins. she learns how to swim and eat raw fish, she loves her family. then humans find her and take her to a ladratory were she learns how to speak, she learns simple math and other things like table manners. after a yaer or so she start to miss the sea a lot and wants to go back.
when i was reading this book i was able to connect to Mila (the main character). when she was mad at her dolphine mom when she did not let her p...more
when i was reading this book i was able to connect to Mila (the main character). when she was mad at her dolphine mom when she did not let her p...more
I rated this book four stars because it was a good book. It had a really bad ending though. Well, it wasn't a bad ending I just didn't like it. She was becoming such a good human and she even had a crush on Justin but she missed her life as a dolphin. This book really shows how much a girl can love her "real" family and miss them so much. The author did a good job on making it sound like she wrote it. In the beginning it was very short, basic sentances and repeated ideas. Toward the end she beca...more
This book is awesome. I know it's more of a kids story but i, personally, enjoyed it very much.The story is pretty much about a teenage girl who is found living with dolphins in the ocean where she has been since before she can remember. The girl knows nothing of humans and belives that she is a dolphin herself. She is taken to a special learning place to be tought how to read, write and speak. It was most entertaining to see how she reacted to all her new surroundings, things like swimming pool...more
Julianna's review for The Music of Dolphins
This book started with the author. The author is Karen Hesse, also Karen helped out a little bit with the illustration on the cover of the book. The genre is very important for a book. The genre for The Music of Dolphins is Fiction and the sub-genre is Adventure/Survival. The point of view in this book is 1st person. (The girl) Mila is talking, she is the narrator. Mila lives in the ocean when she gets rescued and she starts a new life. She learns new...more
This book started with the author. The author is Karen Hesse, also Karen helped out a little bit with the illustration on the cover of the book. The genre is very important for a book. The genre for The Music of Dolphins is Fiction and the sub-genre is Adventure/Survival. The point of view in this book is 1st person. (The girl) Mila is talking, she is the narrator. Mila lives in the ocean when she gets rescued and she starts a new life. She learns new...more
I've had this book for a very long time. And I've probably read it about once a year. Even though its a children's book, it is very thought provoking.
Mila is a young girl who, after her capture by humans, goes to live in a research house where they teach her language, music, and other necessary skills. You see, Mila had been living with dolphins for the greater portion of her life, surviving in the sea and knowing nothing else. Of course the change is a great shock to her but she gradually adapt...more
Mila is a young girl who, after her capture by humans, goes to live in a research house where they teach her language, music, and other necessary skills. You see, Mila had been living with dolphins for the greater portion of her life, surviving in the sea and knowing nothing else. Of course the change is a great shock to her but she gradually adapt...more
"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."
Yes, this is a young adult book. Yes, you can probably read it in an hour. Yes, the print for the beginning and end of the book is huge, like 36 or 48 point. BUT this was a really thought-provoking read. I belong to a book club, and one of the members was looking for an interesting yet quick and easy read to follow...more
Yes, this is a young adult book. Yes, you can probably read it in an hour. Yes, the print for the beginning and end of the book is huge, like 36 or 48 point. BUT this was a really thought-provoking read. I belong to a book club, and one of the members was looking for an interesting yet quick and easy read to follow...more
I read this with my son's third grade class last May. So, memories are dim.
I consider this Flowers for Algernon lite. The author attempts to teach a similar lesson, that human beings are complex and as experiment subjects, things don't always turn out the best for them, but it doesn't really have the same aftertaste.
A girl survives a plane accident when she is around 4 (her mother and brother die), but she is never discovered and spends the next decade living with an adoptive pod of dolphins un...more
I consider this Flowers for Algernon lite. The author attempts to teach a similar lesson, that human beings are complex and as experiment subjects, things don't always turn out the best for them, but it doesn't really have the same aftertaste.
A girl survives a plane accident when she is around 4 (her mother and brother die), but she is never discovered and spends the next decade living with an adoptive pod of dolphins un...more
1 like · like · see review
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Class of 2014: book review | 5 | 11 | May 02, 2013 09:27am |
Karen Hesse is an American author of children's literature and literature for young adults, often with historical settings. Her novel Out of the Dust was the winner of the 1998 Newbery Medal and the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction. In 2002, Hesse was a recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship.
For more information, please see http://us.macmillan.com/author/karenh...
More about Karen Hesse...
For more information, please see http://us.macmillan.com/author/karenh...
Share This Book
1 trivia question
More quizzes & trivia...
“I don't know what I am thinking. But I am alone. I am trapped in the net of the room. In the net of humans. I think maybe I am drowning in the net of humans.”
—
6 people liked it
More quotes…
Apr 11, 2009 07:19am
Dec 11, 2012 06:58pm
Dec 11, 2012 07:15pm