Point of View

The point of view of Song For a Whale is almost exclusively first-person, from the perspective of Deaf 12-year-old Iris. However, there are a handful of chapters that are from the third-person perspective of a whale named Blue 55 that cannot communicate with other whales because of the frequency of his call. The vast majority of the novel is from Iris's perspective, though. As one of the only Deaf people in her immediate orbit (other than her grandmother), the first-person perspective gives the reader a full grasp of what experiencing the world is like for Iris as she maneuvers through spaces that do not feel entirely safe or accommodating. Iris is plucky even in the face of family members and peers at school that either do not understand how to interact with Iris or do it in ways that she does not appreciate. Writing directly from...