The powerful yet buoyant Dario and the Whale was inspired by the author's real-life encounter with a curious whale in Cape Cod, Mass.
A Brazilian mother and her son--and a whale and her new calf--live parallel lives. The humans are on Cape Cod because the mother is a seasonal cook at the Salty Cod. The whales are off Cape Cod because that's where North Atlantic right whales go in the spring before they migrate in May. Dario, who speaks Portuguese, awkwardly tries to make friends on the beach. As he's accidentally bumping into a girl's sand castle (" 'Desculpe,' Dario says, turning pink"), the whale is playfully bumping a green turtle, which swims away. And then, "Dario sees the whale. The whale sees Dario." Every day after that, the boy races to the beach to see his whale, which spouts when the boy whistles, and breaches when he waves.
The almost holy wonder of looking into a whale's eye is sublimely captured in the inviting, richly textured paintings of Bulgarian-born illustrator Bistra Masseva (My Dad). It is a dream, to be seen by and make friends with a whale, and in this radiant picture book, author Cheryl Lawton Malone quietly captures the heart-quickening excitement she must have felt herself. --Karin Snelson, children's & YA editor, Shelf Awareness