Book Review – The Dolphin: Story of a Dreamer by Sergio Bambaren
The Dolphin: Story of a Dreamer is an anthropomorphic novel following Daniel Alexander Dolphin on his pursuit to find his true purpose in life. The story begins with Daniel in a conversation with his best friend Michael, a dolphin from the same pod with whom Daniel has fond memories of surfing waves together when they were young. Michael now questions Daniel’s dangerous and immature behavior as an adult, but Daniel, “was convinced that there was more to life than fishing and sleeping” (p.14). Daniel worries that the dolphins in his pod are always too busy, and says that, “instead of fishing to live, they now live to fish” (p.17). Daniel encourages Michael to follow his dreams instead of being stuck in this routine of fishing from dawn to dusk, but Michael instead reasons that he is no longer a young calf, with duties now instead of dreams, and worries what the other dolphins would think of him if they saw him surfing. Michael’s opinions on Daniel’s actions here are representative of the whole pod, and Daniel decides to leave the safety of the reef the pod inhabits because, “in order to find the real purpose of his life [he] had to set aside everything that limited him” (p.35).
In the second part of the story, Daniel embarks on a journey to follow his dreams and find his purpose. Along the way, he meets a few other sea creatures who give him – and ultimately the young reader – a few valuable life lessons. At the beginning of his quest, Daniel meets a humpback whale who tells Daniel that she respects him because of how difficult it is to leave your world to follow your dream. She also tells him: “Pay attention to everything you do or see, and you will learn many things. It’s not only reaching your destiny, but also the journey itself that will show you the meaning of the perfect wave, and how to find it” (p.45). This message is important to the reader as Daniel’s goal is to find the perfect wave, which might not be very meaningful to most readers. However, highlighting the importance of paying attention to the journey is an important message to point out to young readers who may often put too much emphasis on the goal and lose sight of the work it took that made that goal meaningful.
Next, Daniel encounters a sunfish whose goal is to touch the sun. A clearly unachievable pursuit, the sunfish says that they would prefer to die trying to realize their dream rather than to die without following it. After their interaction, Daniel thinks about how everyone has dreams, but only some people fight for them. “Others simply ignore their dreams, afraid of losing what they’ve got. They never realise what the true purpose of their life is” (p.51). After parting ways with the sunfish, Daniel runs into a shark, who is surprised that Daniel does not fear the shark. Daniel explains that he has never seen a shark before, and he is not afraid of what he does not know, unlike the members of his pod who fear everything beyond the comfort of their reef. The shark leaves Daniel with a message that is commonly repeated throughout the story: to listen to your heart and trust your instinct.
The last encounter Daniel has is with an older dolphin who used to be a dreamer like Daniel, but the old dolphin had followed the “Law of the pod” instead of following his heart, and he was now trying to revive his pursuits of following his dreams. The old dolphin tells Daniel that, “it is better to follow your dreams no matter how old you are, than to not follow them at all” (p.59). In the third part of the story, Daniel has finally found an area of the sea that will curate the perfect wave for him. Here he meets two humans who are also surfing, and together they surf this perfect wave. After finally finding the wave, Daniel discovered the true purpose his life: “to live a meaningful and happy existence by following his dreams” (p.84). Daniel then decided that he could finally return to his “beloved island, to where he belonged” (p.84). After returning to the pod, all of the dolphins thought Daniel had been killed by seeking out too many dangerous waves, and they are inspired by his story after initial doubt. They, “finally [find] some time to live,” and begin pursuing their dreams again.
Throughout the story, Bambaren also provides some commentary on the relationship between humans and ocean life. When visiting the whale, they were underneath a fishing boat, and Daniel later encounters this boat alone. He decides to approach and notices that the boat “drained the sea of all forms of life” (p.49). The giant fishing nets were catching dead fish, and even some dead dolphins floated around the boat. Later, Daniel complains about the lights of a coastal city interrupting his usual appreciation of the beauty of the moon and the stars at night. These negative comments about the way humans interact with wildlife provide a sobering reality for children about the impact humans have on the ocean and its animals.
Bambaren provides an inspirational story filled with motivational quotes and aesthetically pleasing photographs of the ocean and dolphins in The Dolphin: Story of a Dreamer. Messages of following your heart, trusting your instinct, and staying true to your dreams regardless of age are hammered home throughout the entire story; the repetitive nature of these messages may appear somewhat tacky to an adult, but these messages and commentary on human being’s interaction with wildlife make this novel a great read for young children breaking into chapter books. Bambaren, who was born in Peru, studied in the United States, and has surfed all over the world, is certainly reflected in Daniel’s spirit of breaking traditional molds in this story. His biography on Amazon books can be read here: https://www.amazon.com/Sergio-Bambaren/e/B001K8QT0G
Works Cited
Bambaren, Sergio. The Dolphin: Story of a Dreamer. Australia, McPhersons Printing Group, 1995.