SOLVED!: Teens accidentally become wizards through a book [s]

[Summer]

I believe you're referring to So You Want to Be a Wizard, by Diane Duane. I listened to this as an audiobook about 2 years ago.

[Ann aka Iftcan]

Boy--this has GOT to be the easiest hunt I've ever seen. :o) The whale thing and the mentors all happen in the very first book. BTW Toni, if you like those books, check out the rest of her books. And you might also like Diana Wynne Jones.

[M—]

Nope, the whales appear in the second book, Deep Wizardry. I remember the mentors as appearing in all the books, but moreso as the series progresses.

The OP remembered the wand descriptions perfectly; those scenes appeared in the first book, So You Want to Be a Wizard.

Those books start off the Young Wizards series, which has eight currently published novels with more projected and several sister publications set in the same universe.

[M—]

I started the series out of order, and Deep Wizardry was the first book I read. It's still my favorite. The girl wizard turned into a humpback whale, the boy wizard into a sperm whale, and the shark they talked with I envisioned as like an albino megalodon.

I must. reread. this. too.