Ocean · Loneliness · Listening
A Whale Called Maybe
He sings at the wrong frequency, so nobody answers.
- Age range
- Ages 5-9
- Reading time
- 7 minutes
- Category
- Ocean stories
What happens
A whale whose song is pitched too high for other whales to hear has been calling for years. A girl with a hydrophone hears him from a harbor wall, and works out how to answer.
Read the opening
Listen to this story
The recording was eleven seconds long and Nia had listened to it four hundred times.
It was a whale, definitely a whale. But every whale in the book sang low — so low you feel it in your ribs. This one sang high, like a finger going around the rim of a glass.
Her teacher said it meant nobody else could hear him. Nia went home, sat on the end of her bed with her coat still on, and thought about that for a long time.
The rest of the story is written around your child — their name, their age, and the hero they describe.
What if your child were the hero?
Make This Story About My ChildFree, about 20 seconds, no card needed — this same adventure, starring them.
Imagine your child in this story
Type a first name. Imagiverse writes, illustrates and narrates the whole story in about a minute — free, no card needed.
Why this one is worth your time
- Loneliness handled with a concrete, fixable problem — hopeful rather than heavy.
- Based loosely on the real 52-hertz whale, which older children love looking up afterward.
- Introduces the idea that not being heard is different from not speaking.
Talk about it afterward
- How do you know when someone isn't being heard?
- What would you send back to the whale?
What if your child were the hero?