In November I read the book Willa and the Whale. Willa and the Whale is a fiction novel about grief and learning to move on. Willa is a girl who is grieving the loss of her mother and struggling to find her way. Though, when on a whale watching tour with her father a whale named Meg speaks to her. Their friendship is the first step in helping Willa move on from her sadness.
I enjoyed this book because it was really fun to go along on Willa’s journey as she learns to move on and find her way. I think the authors did a great job showing how holding onto grief could ruin your relationships with other people and with yourself but when you learn to move on how it can set you free. I also liked reading this book because I liked reading the parts where Meg the whale was talking to Willa and giving her wisdom and someone to talk too. I also found it funny when Willa would try to imitate Meg’s whale call. I could imagine her trying to do it and it sounding terrible.
My favorite character was definitely Meg the whale. I really liked Meg because she had a sense of humor and was very kind. When Willa would talk with Meg she would tell her about whale life and stuff about the ocean while also giving her whale wisdom and lots of helpful advice. I like the fact that Meg kind of acted as a sort of therapy for Willa to help her practice healthy communication, if you could call talking to a whale healthy. That’s why Meg was definitely my favorite character in Willa and the Whale.
One of my favorite quotes from the book is on page 242 where it says, “Everything was hard, but I wasn’t drowning”, I like this quote because I think it kinda symbolizes that even when things seem hard to just know that even though things were tough that there’s still hope and it’s not the worst it could be. I really enjoyed reading Willa and the whale and I totally recommend it if you like reading stories about expiring grief and learning to move on with some ocean animals sprinkled in. Whenever you get the chance I recommend reading Willa and the Whale, it’s sure to not disappoint.