An adventure story set in the endless days of a freezing Arctic landscape, with a haunting presence in the form of the magnificent bowhead whales.
Category: Children's fiction
Tyke is saved from drowning and hypothermia, joins a bowhead whale hunt, rescues his new-found Eskimo friend, Henry, from being swept away on an ice floe, and witnesses the death of innocence with the killing of the narwhal or sea unicorn.
An adventure story set in the endless days of a freezing Arctic landscape, with a haunting presence in the form of the magnificent bowhead whales. A book which will echo in the mind long after the Northern Lights have faded from the final chapters.
Call of The Whales is a powerful, captivating novel of coming of age. The story is told by Tyke now an adult, in a series of evocative flashbacks, as he relives the adventures and encounters that have influenced the rest of his life.
Call of the Whales was shortlisted for the Reading Association of Ireland award 2001.
Having grown up in Galway and Donegal, Siobhán Parkinson has lived most of her adult life in her native Dublin. She studied English literature and German at Trinity, and went on to take her doctorate in English literature. She has worked for many years as an editor, a profession that very closely resembles that of writing. She concentrates more on her writing these days, but is also a very active member of the writers-in-schools scheme, and she gives workshops in creative writing and talks on her work in all sorts of situations. She has held various writing residencies and has been editor of, Inis -- The Children's Books Ireland Magazine, and Bookbird, the IbBy International magazine. Her books have won numerous awards and been translated into lots of languages, her favourites being Latvian, because it is so different, and Japanese, because it is back to front. Her husband, Roger Bennett, is a woodturner and teacher, and her son Matthew is almost grown up. Being her son didn't do him too much harm, he claims, but time will tell. Her book Sisters ... no way! won the Bisto Book of the Year award. Four Kids, Three Cats, Two Cows, One Witch (maybe) won a Bisto Merit Award. Siobhán's next book, The Moon King, also won a Bisto Merit Award and was on the iBbY Honour List 2000, in Ireland's first year as a member of iBbY. Siobhán was Ireland's first Laureate na nÓg (Children's Laureate) from 2010-2012.
'[Parkinson's] reputation as one of Ireland's most talented story-tellers for the young can only be enhanced by this powerful yet wistful work, a work which will illuminate the imaginative lives of its readers, no matter what age.'
'An adventure with attitude'
'A captivating coming-of-age tale with a distinctive narrative voice'
'I loved this book ... Family relationships are warmly drawn, and Siobhan Parkinson cleverly extends the book's range to deal with environmental issues such as whaling and international intervention in indigenous ways of life. She can put both sides of the argument with heartfelt simplicity ... This is a good read for anyone over 10, but it would also be a good class reader as it sets out a clear ideal for world citizenship.'
How an Irishwoman came to write a book about arctic whales!
Download RBFS: Teaching ideas for sixth class from the O'Brien Reading Programme Supplement
