Friends from the Sea

Christine Linge MacDonald is a Toronto-based freelance writer.

A boy having fun in the surf on a four-wheeled recreational vehicle is
beseeched by a tearful girl to retrieve her toy sailboat from the waves.
His rescue attempts put the boy in danger of being swept out to sea by
the tide. Two dolphins save the boy by pushing the slab of wood on which
he is riding back to shore.

In spite of having “spent his life by the ocean” the hero of this
book breaks several fundamental safety rules. Both he and the girl are
playing alone either in or near water. He uses a flimsy raft to go out
deeper than is safe, and forgets to allow for the departing tide. Yet
all is made well through the unlikely intervention of the “friends
from the sea.” Although cases of rescue by dolphins have been
documented, this book does not hint at the extreme rarity of such
events.

The catalogue information lists this as a dolphin book, even though the
story contains no information on these wonderful creatures, beyond the
account of their actions in the rescue of the boy. Also, it is sad to
see outdated gender roles replayed in the “daring swain aids
distraught damsel” vein. The original look of Dainard’s artwork and
her pretty renderings of dolphins are not sufficient to save this book,
especially since the illustrations sometimes do not accurately portray
the text. Not recommended.