Songs of the Humpback Whale Study Guide

Songs of the Humpback Whale, published in 1992, was Jodi Picoult's first novel. It spans the journey of three family members on their way from San Diego, California to Stow, Massachusetts as they discover the reasons their family broke apart and the need for each other that drives them back together. Eminent marine biologist Oliver Jones understands whales better than he understands how to be a father and husband and so he uses his whale-tracking skills to track his wife and child across the country after they leave. Jane Lipton Jones, his wife, is a woman in search of herself after an abusive childhood and a verbally abusive marriage. Fifteen-year-old daughter Rebecca Jones has survived a plane crash, a distant father, an unhappy mother and longs for the love she cannot find at home. (read more)