Saving Finnegan

by Sally Grindley

One morning Finola wakes early to find an amazing thing has happened overnight - a whale has been stranded on the beach below her house.
Soon she is at the forefront of efforts to save the whale. But things aren't as simple as would like, and when the small island community is divided over what course of action to take, Finola finds herself engaged in a battle in which she has some unlikely friends and foes.
Interwoven with the important theme of death, this is a powerful and hugely enjoyable novel by Smarties Gold Medal winning author Sally Grindley.

245 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

I came into children's books originally as Editorial Director of a nationwide children's book club, though I had written and directed a children's play while a student at Sussex University, which was performed at the Edinburgh Fringe. I wrote my first two children's picture books in 1984 and was lucky enough that Anthony Browne wanted to illustrate the second - Knock Knock Who's There? It was published in 1985, is still going strong today and is one of my most successful.

Shhh! was published in 1991 and has known great success in France/Belgium in particular (close on 300,000 copies sold). It's success in the UK - it won the Children's Book Award - was hampered by the liquidation of its original publisher.

I became a full-time author in 1995 and now have some 150+ titles published, the most recent being L'Histoire du Soir in France, Belgium and Italy.

Feather Wars, published in 2003, was my first sortie into young fiction and was followed by the very successful Spilled Water, which has been published in some ten different languages and is very popular in schools as a class reader. It won the Nestle Smarties Gold Award (and I wound up being a 'Pointless' answer on the back of it!) Broken Glass came next and was a Sunday Times Book of the Week.

I'm currently working on picture books again and have plans to illustrate one of my own in the not too distant future - watch this space!

Reviews

[Helen and Daisy Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

By Daisy
This book, engaging, realistic and touching, is the perfect read for an 8-12 year old- specifically one who has recently lost a pet.
Holly, a girl on the verge of puberty, lives on a remote island in Scotland. When, one day, she awakes to find a whale on the beach outside her window, her life is changed forever.
Soon, Holly and her friends are engaged in a battle of wills to both save Finnegan's life and his memory. However, it could prove harder than she thought and she may lose some friends along the way....
This story is about loss and growing up. Along with Finnegan, other animals Holly stands to lose are her chicken Mrs. Frillyknickers and Trog, her family's aging sheepdog. This is one of Sally Grindley's least famous books, but also one of her finest.
One thing that confuses me is how, online, it says that Holly's name is Finola. Is there another edition? Weird!

[Zayyan · Rating 2 out of 5]

this books a great book to read until suddenly the end of the 5th chapter. unfortunately i chose this book for a book report in school and thought it would be a good book but i got really bored of reading this and didn't like the book. #dontreadthis

[Wendy Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

this website is 1 qauter good because you won't let me read the actually book and i need it for monday for school

[Eleanor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book to pieces I could read it over and over again.