*The Music of Dolphins*", by Karen Hesse
, is a children's book that follows the story of Mila (translated as an abbreviated form of theSpanish
word for "miracle"), a feral child
raised by a pod of dolphins
around the Florida Keys
andCaribbean
.
The novel uses a narrative structure that parallels Mila's increasing comprehension of English. At the novel's opening, when Mila is with the dolphins and cannot speak English, the story is told from a neutral third person
(Mila's POV) perspective. The text moves to simple English
as the protagonist
learns human language, becomes more complex as her emotions increase, reverts to simple English when she yearns for the dolphins again, and finally goes back to the third person perspective.
Though the novel is fiction, it is based on real-life experiences of those who have worked with feral children.