White As the Waves

by Alison Baird

A modern retelling of the Melville classic told from the viewpoint of the whale.

Genres: Fiction

160 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1999

About the author

Alison Baird is a resident of Oakville, Ontario, Canada, and a graduate of Trinity College, University of Toronto, where she earned her Honours B.A. in English and her M.A. degree.

As an author she had an early start, publishing her first poems when she was 12. Her first book, The Dragon's Egg, was published by Scholastic Canada: it was a national bestseller and a Regional Winner of the Silver Birch Award (a children's choice award). It is now featured on school curricula across the country. The Hidden World and White as the Waves: A Novel of Moby Dick were both CCBC "Our Choice" selections, and White as the Waves was shortlisted for the IODE Violet Downey Book Award. Baird has also written two trilogies, the Willowmere Chronicles and The Dragon Throne. The Stone of the Stars, the first book of The Dragon Throne, received a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly.

Baird's short fiction has appeared in On Spec magazine, a Canadian periodical of original science fiction and fantasy for adults. Her story "Dragon Pearl" received an Honourable Mention in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror published by St. Martin's Press. Another short story, "Moon Maiden," appeared in the acclaimed young adult anthology What If. . .? Amazing Stories Selected by Monica Hughes (Tundra Books), which was an ABA Kids’ Pick of the Lists and was featured on the New York Public Library’s Recommended List.

Reviews

[KAS]

More people should know about this book. A thoughtful, well researched retelling of Moby Dick from the perspective of the white whale. This reminded me of Call of the Wild or White Puma. Highly recommend for those interested in wildlife biology and conservation.

[Annm]

I was pleasantly surprised. I w not expecting much. While I did find much that did not seem very believable, the story was well written, and I enjoyed reading it. It was difficult to read the parts where whales are harpooned.

[christopher woods]

A ‘Must Read’ Companion to Moby Dick

As a person who has read Moby Dick countless times, and almost committed passages to memory, this book has come as a powerful, and much needed, revelation. Gorgeously written and eerily convincing in its description of a possible Sperm Whale society and culture, this book feels as prescient and as ahead-of-its-time as Moby Dick does. To imagine that we share sentience, or rather, a sapience, with other mammals on this planet is not far-fetched but plainly obvious. To think of our fellow creatures as possessing the same powers of intellect, memory and emotion as we do is the mindset humanity should adopt in creating a better future for ourselves and the tiny island we inhabit in the vast ocean of space. What an extraordinary piece of literature. It has opened a door for me and awakened a new mindset in taking in the natural world around me. Thank you to Ms. Baird for having the courage to create this incredible work.

[J.]

A hard book to read, as it is, to an extent, historical fiction. But to me the book also calls us to be aware of the fragility of the web of life and our choice to either work toward its salvation or continue toward its destruction.