Skip to main content

story identification - Book, probably published before the 1980s, about a pair of teenage girls (twins?) raised by dolphins and slowly integrating into society



I picked up a copy of this in my grandmother's house, probably 10-20 years ago. I think my mother said it belonged to my aunt Mary, who probably would have read it around the 1970s (high school / college age). The primary characters were a pair of teenage girls who had an older male professor as their guardian. I'm pretty sure the girls had long blonde hair and blue eyes. I don't remember if the girls were feral children raised by dolphins or if they were part of an experiment by the professor, but they were amazing swimmers who could hold their breath for longer than any normal human. Other than that, I just have a few scenes dancing around it my head. First, the professor kept the girls on a boat, presumably so that they could be closer to water. Second, there was a scene where one of the girls put on makeup to try to be normal, and went off on a date. Her sister observes from a hiding place. The date in question sees the sister watching and assumes that this is a sign that they're both interested and he gets more aggressive. She interprets her date's kiss as an attack and goes off of the side of the boat, leading him to think that he killed her (my vague memory is that said date might have been an assistant to the professor or he might have just been a local townsperson).


The girls might have had a psychic connection with each other, but I'm less sure about that. Unfortunately, I read this over a decade ago, and I don't think I even got to finish the book. The front cover had one of the girls on the boat and I want to say that the title talking about them as "dolphin girls". It might have been part of a series.




Answer



Very likely Daughters of the Dolphin by Roy Meyers, published in 1968. The second book in a trilogy. The first book is Dolphin Boy, John, whose mother's exposure to radiation, allowed him to live essentially as a dolphin.He is raised by a female dolphin after being accidentally tossed into the sea as an infant. There's is not enough online to get details of Daughters, but what I remember of the book, I think matches your question.


enter image description here


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.

aliens - Interstellar Zoo story

I vaguely remember this story from my childhood: it was about an interstellar zoo that came to Earth with lots of bizarre and unusual species, and humans would file through and gape at all the crazy looking creatures from other planets. The twist came at the end when the perspective shifted to the other side of the bars and we discovered that the "creatures" were traveling through space on a kind of safari. They thought they were the visitors and we were the animals. Neither side knew that the other side thought they were the zoo creatures. Answer Got it. Zoo, by Edward D. Hoch. Published in 1958. Link to Publication History Link to PDF

harry potter - What is the difference between Diffindo and Sectumsempra?

In the Harry Potter books, Diffindo is called the 'Severing Charm' and it’s most commonly used to cut ropes and the like. However, in the last book Hermione uses it on Ron but misses, creating a 'slash in his jeans' and his knee gets cut, causing him to 'roar in pain'. We've only seen Sectumsempra used once on screen when Harry directly uses it on Malfoy in the sixth book, but there it's mentioned that he is 'waving his wand wildly'. Wouldn't Diffindo, if used in such a fashion also cause a similar effect? Similarly, if it was able to cut Ron, it would also be able to, say, chop off an ear (George's)? In that case, how are these two spells different, except for Sectumsempra seemingly used exclusively to hurt humans? Answer While Diffindo and Sectumsempra both can be countered by other spells, Diffindo is far more easily countered. Reparo, a relatively common spell, can completely reverse its effect when used once. “He pulled the old cop...

harry potter - How could Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra?

I want to be very careful about how I ask this question – I am not asking How did Voldemort die? [CLOSED] Below the text is the relevant passages from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows if anyone wants to review them (I'm sorry for the amount of text). How did Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra and kill Voldemort? I feel the reason Harry's Expelliarmus overpowered Voldemort's Avada Kedavra curse has to do with who was master of the Elder Wand and how the Elder Wand works. I've always had trouble understanding fully how the Elder Wand works, though. How much did the fact that Voldemort never truly won or mastered the Elder Wand factor into how Expelliarmus reacted to Avada Kedavra and caused Avada Kedavra to rebound and kill Voldemort? An answer based in book canon would be especially welcome, but any canon source really is fine. Harry heard the high voice shriek as he, too, yelled his best hope to the heavens, pointing Draco’s wand: ‘ Avada Kedavra !’ ‘ Expelliarmus !...