A Galaxy of Whales
A Galaxy of Whales
Once the Zenith was tied up properly, Fern followed Mom to the Worthwhile Tours office, a small one-room building at the edge of the ramp leading down to the docks. Mom stopped so suddenly that Fern walked right into her.
Another boat pulled smoothly up to the dock. It was also a whale watching boat, but it was bigger than the Zenith, with huge pontoons and a covered cabin. On the side of the boat were the words Whale of Fortune Tours - Why go anywhere else?
Fern’s hands tightened into fists. She saw Mom’s do the same, but then relaxed them quick. The boat was full– fifteen tourists, more than twice as many as they’d had on the Zenith. A tall, muscular man jumped out of the boat first, flashing a brilliant smile as he helped the tourists onto the dock.
“Come on,” Mom muttered, trying to hurry past the boat. But it was too late. The man had seen them.
“Well, if it isn’t Fiona Mackenzie!” he said, and Mom’s shoulders stiffened at the same time as a hard sort of smile spread across her face.
“How’s it going, Clarke?” she said.
“Oh, it’s going,” he replied. His wife came to stand beside him, and her smile was the same as Mom’s. It reminded Fern of the time Hamish had cleaned his room by shoving everything under the bed. It was a smile that hid things beneath it.
“Wendy!” Mom exclaimed, giving her a fake hug. Mom’s fake hugs were extremely easy to detect, because they were not at all explosive.
Fern didn’t think of Clarke and Wendy Roy as Clarke and Wendy, but instead as Jasper’s mom and dad. Jasper was a boy in her class. He was eleven like her, and they would be attending the same junior high school in the fall. His parents were exact opposites. Jasper’s dad was big and pale with movie-star hair that was almost as orange as Mom’s, while Jasper’s mom was small with brown skin and black hair slicked back flat into a braid that always hung over the same shoulder (left). They ran the Whale of Fortune, the other whale watching company in the town of Goose Beach, and they were the Mackenzies’ mortal enemies.
A Galaxy of Whales tells the story of 11-year-old Fern Mackenzie and her family’s whale watching business in Goose Beach. Although the story centers around the competition of Fern’s family owned Worthwhile Tours and the Roy’s Whale of Fortune Tours, it is about much more. It is about family, friendship, loyalty and growing up. In the novel, Fawcett takes her audience on an adventure that delves into carrying on a family business built around tradition and then trying to balance and adapt to an ever-changing world. Fawcett develops each of the Mackenzie family characters into multi-faceted individuals, taking her audience along in this journey. Fawcett also creates conflict through the other whale watching company, but this, too, has many layers, including a photography contest - the West Coast Tribune’s 1st Annual Youth Wildlife Photography Contest, with a five thousands dollar prize and a front page cover story in the Tribune>. As the audience gets further and further into the novel, they also start to believe that things are not always as they seem on the surface.
Fern, as the main character in A Galaxy of Whales, is a typical 11-year-old trying to find her way. Her best friend Ivy has just returned from the Yukon, and Fern believes they will simply pick up their relationship where they left off. This doesn’t happen because, as Fern says, there are two versions of Ivy, the before fifth grade Ivy who was her best friend and the after fifth grade Ivy who is different. Then there is Jasper Roy, Fern’s sworn mortal enemy and also next door neighbour and classmate who, she learns, is a friend of her older brother Hamish. Fern must come to terms with who her true friends are and ultimately what it means to be a friend. To do this, she has to look to her own family and the who and what they represent to her and then look inward. It isn’t until Fern runs away in an attempt to destroy the one thing that links her to her deceased father and best friend Ivy, her camera, and she is faced with danger that she finally learns that a friend can be many things including a friend to other people. She also learns the kind of friend she wants to be.
A Galaxy of Whales is a worthwhile read, one that is difficult to put down.
Christina Pike is a retired principal of a junior high in St. John’s, Newfoundland.