Song for a Whale: Chapters 30–48

by Lynne Kelly
Iris is a 12-year-old girl who is deaf; when she learns about Blue 55, a whale that sings at a frequency other whales can't understand, she vows to find a way to communicate with him.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–9, Chapters 10–29, Chapters 30–48
25 words 111 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. illuminate
    make lighter or brighter
    At the ocean’s surface the sunlight illuminated the whale families he couldn’t belong to.
  2. starboard
    right side of a ship or aircraft to someone facing the bow
    After we each got a dish—chocolate mint for her, red velvet for me—I sat at a computer near a window, all the way to the right. Starboard, I should say.
  3. stern
    the rear part of a ship
    The front was the bow, the back the stern. But some signs on the walls pointed out the fore and aft parts of the ship so I wasn’t sure what the differences were.
  4. aft
    near or toward the stern of a ship or tail of an airplane
    The front was the bow, the back the stern. But some signs on the walls pointed out the fore and aft parts of the ship so I wasn’t sure what the differences were.
  5. hazy
    filled or abounding with fog or mist
    In some areas the ice was so thick, it seemed the mountain was made of ice. Then, just a few feet away, brown rock showed through a hazy ice window.
  6. propel
    cause to move forward with force
    The dolphin threw herself onto the whale. He sank down to keep her just below the surface, then propelled his body through the water, ahead of the pod.
  7. rehabilitate
    restore someone to a good state of health or reputation
    Part of the sanctuary was like a hospital for injured and sick animals, and they lived in either indoor pools or in sea pens until they were rehabilitated and ready to return to the open ocean.
  8. fjord
    a long narrow inlet of the sea between steep cliffs
    That afternoon I joined Bennie and Sura on the bridge for the fjord tour.
  9. floe
    a flat mass of ice drifting at sea
    Ice bobbed in the water, pushed aside by the waves created by the ship. Seals lounged at the base of the mountain and on ice floes.
  10. pantomime
    act out without words but with gestures and bodily movements
    I shrugged at Bennie, then pantomimed turning a big wheel, even though no one actually turned a wheel to steer the ship.
  11. cringe
    draw back, as with fear, pain, or embarrassment
    Before leaving I checked my email, even though I cringed while opening it.
  12. pang
    a sudden sharp feeling
    A pang of guilt hit my stomach when I realized I hadn’t even thought of him much.
  13. salvage
    collect discarded or refused material
    If I'd had any idea I might need a speaker, I’d have brought one from home. I could throw the Bluetooth into the water after connecting the signal to my phone. Or I would’ve salvaged parts from the radio in that Admiral set in my closet to make a speaker.
  14. rickety
    inclined to shake as from weakness or defect
    Next to the bus stood a rickety wooden shed with the word paint in red letters over the entrance, and a dead appliance section like at Moe’s.
  15. caulk
    a waterproof filler and sealant used in building and repair
    From there I ran toward a pile of pipes and overturned toilets. Next to a rusty pipe were a few tubes of leftover caulk. The ones without caps wouldn’t be any good. The caulk inside would have dried up.
  16. shard
    a broken piece of a brittle artifact
    So many more stars than we could see at home. It looked like one of the glaciers had shattered onto the sky, dotting the blackness with shards of ice.
  17. origami
    the art of folding paper
    Before we’d left the room, I put the origami whale in the front pocket of my jeans for good luck.
  18. billow
    rise and move, as in waves
    After walking a few blocks, we saw a huge black train sitting on the tracks, steam billowing from the engine.
  19. shudder
    shake, as from cold
    The train shuddered and lurched forward, gradually picking up speed as we rolled down the tracks along the Oregon coast.
  20. crescent
    a curved shape tapers at the ends
    The crescent of the dorsal fin rose above the surface, followed by the broad fluke.
  21. dorsal
    on or near the back of an animal or organ
    The crescent of the dorsal fin rose above the surface, followed by the broad fluke.
  22. reclaim
    reassert one's right or title to
    The whale dove down and rose up and reclaimed every song he’d ever created and abandoned on the waves.
  23. hallucinate
    have illusions; perceive what is not actually there
    Frozen as I was, I wasn’t hallucinating. My parents stood there, arms around each other, on the dock in front of the sanctuary, along with Grandma.
  24. acoustic
    relating to the study of the physical properties of sound
    All of this—Andi pointed to the computer screens—and what you did with the song is called acoustic biology.
  25. dread
    fearful expectation or anticipation
    The thought of going to a school where I’d know hardly anyone was scary, but it was better than the dread I’d feel about spending my next years of school like the last ones.
Created on Fri Mar 27 20:54:43 EDT 2020 (updated Tue Mar 31 08:23:30 EDT 2020)

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