ALA Booklist

Smart, gifted Glashka has always heard unique music in her head, which the elders of her Siberian tribe tell her is the song of the whales that sustain their culture. To be able to hear the music is a rare gift. When Glashka and her family come across a group of Beluga whales trapped in a bay, the village swings into action, keeping the ice open until a Russian ice-breaker can arrive. When the ship finally comes, Glashka suggests drawing the whales back to sea with music. It's a shame that Glashka's specific culture is never identified in the story, although historical source notes cite the Chukchi Peninsula, where the incident on which the story was based occurred. But this is a quiet, powerful story, beautifully extended by Sylvada's paintings of ghostly whale shapes and glowing, fin-shaped skies. In broad strokes and muted colors, they convey the region's extremes of light and temperature, and the blurry distinctions between the landscape and its inhabitants. (Reviewed January 1 & 15, 2000)

Horn Book

When Glashka discovers thousands of whales trapped in an inlet by ice, the whole village helps keep them alive until a nearby ship can clear a channel to the open sea. Inspired by an actual event, the story's only misstep is the contrivance of Glashka's dream-inspired solution. Impressionistic earth-toned oil paintings capture the sweep of the landscape but keep readers at a distance, depicting Glashka's face only once.

Kirkus Reviews

The true story may be more exciting than its telling in this first effort from Schuch and Sylvada, who give the tale of the real rescue of whales a metaphysical spin. Glashka has a special gift—she can hear the voice of Narna, the whale, as her ancestors once did. A nighttime dream foretells of a fateful event—thousands of whales trapped in the ice. Glashka's villagers, young and old, chip back the ice to make room for the whales to breathe until the arrival of a Russian icebreaker. Even though the path is clear, the whales are afraid to follow the ship out to open sea; Glashka believes that music will lead the whales to safety. The Russian crew blasts rock-and-roll, and then Russian folk songs, but only a work of classical music brings the desired result. While it's true that thousands of Beluga whales were trapped in a Siberian strait across from the Bering Sea in Alaska, and that classical music led them to open waters, Glashka comes across not as a person, but as a character created solely for a particular effect. Dense oil paintings serve primarily as backdrops—abstracted dark shapes of whales and ships, sweeps of ice, ocean and sky. The art's somber style adds weight to a story striving for buoyancy. (Picture book. 6-9)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

During the winter of 1984–1985, nearly 3,000 beluga whales were trapped in Siberia—and saved by the bravery and persistence of villagers and the crew of a passing icebreaker. The author casts a child as heroine in what <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">PW called a "tender and moving"story. Ages 6-9. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Oct.)