Grayson by Lynne Cox

Trade Paperback.  Highly recommended!  An amazing, magical story.

It was the dark of early morning; seventeen-year-old Lynne Cox was swimming her last half mile back to the pier after a long workout when she became aware that something was swimming with her. The ocean was charged with energy as if a squall was moving in; whatever it was felt large enough to be a white shark coursing beneath her body. In fact, it was a baby gray whale.

Lynne quickly realized that if she swam back to the pier, the young calf would follow her to shore and die from collapsed lungs. On the other hand, if Lynne didn't find the mother whale, the baby would suffer from dehydration and starve to death. Something so enormous -- the mother whale would be at least fifty feet long -- suddenly seemed very small in the vast Pacific Ocean.

The International Swimming Hall of Famer and award-winning author shares her story -- part mystery, part magical tale -- "a celebration of the natural world in all its glory, and the deep and lasting effect it can have on us humans if only we pause to notice" (John Grogan, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Marely and Me).