This story is about the beauty of whales, yet it has aspects that refer back to the economic value that whaling had before the days of petroleum products and over killing. Lilly is a young girl who lives by the ocean and her grandmother is telling her the story of the whales. How peaceful they are and how she would watch them and occasionally even hear them singing to her. Lilly's great-uncle Frederick provides the counterpoint, calling the grandmother's stories about whales silly and pointing out how important they were for meat, bones and blubber to create whale oil for lamps.
Lilly is told that she needed to offer the whales something, so one day she throws a yellow flower into the ocean. After waiting, she gives up and goes home to bed. However, during the night the whales call to her and she goes to the seashore where she sees the whales and hears them saying her name.
Humans know very little about whales, their social structure or even their level of intelligence. Therefore, it is not beyond the realm of possibility that humans could learn a great deal from whales. While that is not the main premise of this book, it does point out that there is much to admire and respect about whales and the role they have in the ecosystem of the world.
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The Whales' Song Books In Print, Audio Books.