Zara and the Whale Song

Zara and the Whale Song

starring Zara

Start reading

Zara and the Whale Song

starring Zara

Start reading

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Every page, side by side

1. 

   Every morning, Zara visited the little cove behind her home, where the sea made bubbly sounds against the rocks. Zara listened carefully. Splash, swish, shush. Her best friend, Pip the penguin, waddled beside her with a shiny green shell tucked under one flipper. “Ready for an adventure?” Pip asked.

2. 

   Zara was known for finishing what she started. If a kite snagged in a bush, Zara untangled it. If a puzzle had one piece missing, Zara looked and looked. “Try again,” she would say. “Then try a new way!” Pip gave an approving little penguin nod. “That is very Zara.”

3. 

   That afternoon, the green shell began to hum. Hummmmmm. It glowed brighter, then brighter still. A round bubble floated out of it, big enough for Zara and Pip. “Well,” said Pip, adjusting a tiny diving mask, “that seems like an invitation.” Zara grinned. “Under the sea we go!”

4. 

   Down, down, down they bobbed, past silver fish and waving forests of seaweed. Soon they reached a glowing coral reef, pink and gold and blue. Then Zara heard a tiny, wobbly sound. “Woooo-oo?” Behind a coral arch floated a baby whale, with enormous worried eyes and a very small splashy tail.

5. 

   “I cannot find my pod,” sniffled the baby whale. “We were singing, then the current whooshed me round and round.” Pip gently patted one flipper. Zara leaned close to listen. Far away came a faint sound: Wooo-ooo, wooo-ooo. “We will follow that song,” Zara said. “We will not give up.”

6. 

   First came the Bubble Gardens, where hundreds of bubbles rose in tickly streams. The whale song vanished beneath their pop-pop-popping. Pip tried listening with a shell on one ear. Plop! It slid over his whole head. Zara giggled, then tapped a steady beat on the bubble. Tap-tap, pause. Tap-tap, pause. The distant song answered.

7. 

   They followed the beat to a kelp forest, tall as towers and twisty as ribbons. The current tugged them left, then right, then upside-down. “I do not like upside-down,” said Pip, upside-down. Zara spotted little crabs holding kelp strands together. “Let us make a guide rope!” Soon, the friends zig-zagged safely through.

8. 

   Beyond the kelp stood an old sunken ship, its windows glowing softly. “The song is in there,” said Zara. But a curtain of sleepy fish filled the doorway. They were having a very serious nap. Pip whispered, “Perhaps we should tiptoe.” Penguins are not famous for tiptoeing underwater, but Pip gave it his best wiggle.

9. 

   Zara had an idea. She pointed to the tiny bubbles drifting from the ship’s chimney. “We can hum with them.” Hum, hum, hum. Pip hummed low. The baby whale hummed high. Zara hummed right in the middle. The sleepy fish swayed aside like curtains at a show. “Thank you,” Zara whispered as they slipped through.

10. 

    Inside, the ship was a maze of cabins. Every door had a different sound behind it: clink-clink, burble-burble, and one very rude squeak. “Which way?” asked the baby whale. Zara closed her eyes and listened. Wooo-ooo, wooo-ooo. “Not the loudest sound,” she said. “The truest one. This way!”

11. 

    The true song led to the ship’s grand window, but a mountain of pearly shells covered it. Pip pushed. The baby whale puffed. Nothing moved. Zara did not sigh or stomp. “Try again,” she said. “Then try a new way!” She asked the nearby octopus to tickle the sand beneath the shells. Whoosh! They slid aside.

12. 

    At last, through the clear window, Zara saw it: a line of whales beyond a deep blue valley, singing their rolling song. But the current between the ship and the pod was too swirly for the little whale. “I can do it,” said Zara, determined as ever. “We will make a path.”

13. 

    Zara called the crabs, the octopus, and even the Bubble Garden fish. Together they made a sparkling chain: kelp rope, bubble markers, and bright shells pointing the way. Pip led the first wiggle. Zara led the next. “Swish, swish, keep going!” they sang, and the baby whale followed the safe path home.

14. 

    “Woooo-ooo!” called the pod. “Woooo-ooo!” answered the baby whale. Then came the happiest splish-splashy reunion in the whole sea. Gentle whale fins twirled around Zara and Pip in a watery dance. One big whale offered Zara a gleaming shell. It was green, of course. Pip bowed so deeply he nearly somersaulted.

15. 

    Back at the little cove, the magic bubble gently popped. Pop! Zara placed the green shell on her windowsill. Pip settled in a basket with a biscuit and a yawn. “We never gave up,” Zara said. “No,” said Pip. “And next time, I am bringing a map. And perhaps a less wiggly bottom.”