Anna’s Song, by Doc Richter

Thirteen-year-old Anna Book doesn’t want a whale-watching trip. She wants to be left alone with her anger.

Still reeling from her mother’s death, Anna lashes out at the father who is trying—desperately—to reach her. But when she slips away from their remote camp on Mexico’s Magdalena Bay and ventures alone into the dark water, a near-fatal encounter changes everything. Rescued by forces she cannot explain, Anna makes first contact with a gray whale called Firstmother—and discovers she is a rare “Mostrememberer,” able to share the whales’ ancient memories.

Through breathtaking “songs” of a lost, semi-aquatic human past, Anna uncovers a forgotten bond between species—and a looming corporate threat to the bay. As danger rises, she must choose: retreat into grief, or become the messenger the whales have been waiting for.

Anna’s Song is a luminous tale of healing, evolution, and the courage to remember who we once were.