The Lost Whale by Hannah Gold illustrated by Levi Penfold

Rio's mum is very unwell. Rio has been coping with his mum and her strange behaviour all his life. Rio desperately wants his mother to be happy and he thinks it is up to him to make this happen. But now things have become way too hard for his mum, who is a concert violinist. His mum needs to go and stay in a special hospital in London and Rio is sent to Los Angeles and into the care of a grandmother he does not know.

His grandmother gives Rio a box of bis mother's treasures. Inside the box he finds a drawing of an amazing whale. It is named White Beak. Rio has very mixed up emotions and he is unable to communicate his fears to anyone but he is sure if he can find this whale his mother will be well again and they will be united. Luckily he is now living near the ocean and equally luckily he finds the perfect friend. Marina is the daughter of a man (Birch) who runs the local whale watching business. 

I did read The Lost Whale in one sitting and I enjoyed it but in some ways this book feels very similar to others with this same theme of healing a parent with mental illness; the dangers of ocean pollution and plastic to wild creatures like whales; and the journey of a young child as he tries to heal the hurt from the past. It felt a little too obvious to make Rio's mood match the mood of the ocean and a little contrived perhaps when he found the whale and then dived into the open ocean to have a special moment with this majestic creature but I don't think young readers 10+ will notice those tiny issues. At times I found Rio was little too angry and selfish especially when his grandmother was so kind and patient with him, but I enjoyed the final scenes where Rio, Marina, Birch (her dad) and his Grandmother (Fran) head out to find and ultimately rescue their precious whale. 

The theme of saving and being saved is definitely evident here, whatever your age. The adult will go on from thinking it's a book about saving the mother to saving Rio, but there is also the aspect of saving the whales and the entire ocean. The Book Bag

This book does contain references to mental illness but it is not as confronting as The Illustrated Mum by Jacqueline Wilson. Rio's confusion is very similar to Jack in the book Small as an Elephant. My advance copy of The Lost Whale says this book was published on the 3rd March but I see from an online bookseller it will actually be released on 4th May, 2022. 

The Lost Whale is a companion volume (although this one has different characters) to The Last Bear. One special feature of both books are the splendid illustrations by Levi Pinfold. 

Look for these if you enjoy The Lost Whale:

The Truth of Me (absent parents who are musicians and an important grandparent)

Small as an Elephant

And two picture book companions would be:

The Whales' Song

The Tale of the Whale