Grayson

Seventeen-year-old long distance swimmer Lynne Cox was out training in the cold Pacific one morning when she became aware something was swimming beside her. It was an 18-foot baby gray whale that had apparently been following her for some time.

Lynne realized that—much as she needed to swim to shore herself to rest—the calf would follow her, likely beach itself, and die. Even so, if the mother could not be found, the calf would starve. Something so enormous as a mother whale 50 feet long suddenly seemed very small in the vast Pacific.GRAYSON is the remarkable true story—part mystery, part magical tale—of Lynne's efforts to reunite mother and calf.

Publishers Weekly

On a clear California morning when Cox (Swimming to Antarctica) was 17 years old, she had an unusual experience that stayed with her for 30 years, creating a spiritual foundation for her personal and professional success. In this slim and crisp memoir, Cox details a morning swim off the coast of California that took an unexpected turn: returning to shore, she discovered that she was being followed by a baby gray whale that had been separated from its mother. As Cox developed a rapport with the whale, she took on the responsibility of keeping it at sea until it was reunited with its mother. Cox expertly weaves fine details together, from the whale's mushroomlike skin to how other fish react to such a large creature. At times Cox's prose is uneven, alternating from emotional to factual, but her pure joy at connecting with Grayson (her name for the baby whale) overrides any technical inconsistencies. The combination of retelling her once-in-a-lifetime experience with her observations on life ("If I try, if I believe, if I work toward something... the impossible isn't impossible at all") will have timeless appeal for all ages. (Aug.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

LYNNE COX has set records all over the world for open-water swimming. She was named a Los Angeles Times Woman of the Year, inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame, and honored with a lifetime achievement award from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is the author of Swimming to Antarctica, which won an Alex Award. She lives in Los Alamitos, California.