The Music of Dolphins

Blurb

The Music of Dolphins, by Karen Hesse, is a children's book that follows the story of Mila, a feral child raised by a pod of dolphins around the Florida Keys and Caribbean. "Mila" is an abbreviated form of the Spanish word milagro, meaning "miracle".
The novel uses a narrative structure that parallels Mila's increasing comprehension of the English language. At the novel's opening, when Mila is with the dolphins and cannot speak English, the story is told from a neutral third person perspective, but from Mila's point of view. The text moves to simple English as Mila learns the language, becomes more complex as her emotions increase, reverts to simple English when she yearns for the dolphins and, finally, goes back to third person.
Although the novel is fiction, it is based on real life experiences of people who have worked with feral children.