Seas the Day™!

Inspiration and information to protect Our
Ocean

Each month in 2006, The Ocean Project will highlight a book focused on our blue planet or environmental sustainability. Books for all age groups will be covered, non-fiction and fiction, prose and poetry. If you have a suggestion, please let us know.

Grayson Grayson , by Lynn Cox
Lynn Cox's Grayson is the powerful and moving true story of how the paths of humans and the creatures of the ocean can intersect in surprising ways. In a world where so much of the news regarding the environment is overwhelmingly negative, it is refreshing to come across a story that views the ocean from a vantage point where humans and marine animals depend upon one another and are tied together through the common thread of the ocean.

Cox recalls an encounter that takes place over the course of only several hours, and it takes about the same amount of time to read this magical story. In this unique memoir, Cox, a long-distance swimmer who has swum in Antarctica and from Alaska to Russia, shares an unforgettable incident that took place when she was only seventeen years old, yet touched her so deeply that it would stay with her for the rest of her life.

In the darkness of an early morning, Cox was out swimming in the ocean while training for an upcoming long distance swim. Towards the end of her workout, she first heard and felt the presence of a large animal near her. Initial fears of a large shark turned to awe when she discovered that an eighteen foot long baby gray whale was swimming with her.

Cox quickly realized that the baby whale, whom she called “Grayson,” had become separated from its mother and was following her, instead. Although she was tiring rapidly from her intensive hours-long workout, she could not turn and head in towards shore because if she did, Grayson would follow her and quite possibly beach itself and die.

Grayson is Lynn Cox's remarkable accounting of her journey that morning as she swam through the ocean in the company of beautiful creatures including a playful young whale whose fate was partially in her hands. Her incredible conviction to reunite Grayson with his mother and her passion for the beauty of the ocean surrounding her make for a moving read. Cox's memoir is a wonderful overview of the undeniable emotional pull of the ocean and its life on humans, as well as a poignant illustration of the power that we possess to help, or hurt, the animals who depend upon us to protect them.

This short novel is a truly inspiring read that can bring back the emotional connection that we all have to the ocean for even the most jaded of readers. By reading Grayson you can rediscover your ocean connection and become reenergized to protect our ocean.

Learn more about our ocean and the interconnectedness of life at The Ocean Project's website.
Find out how you can help our ocean at the Seas the Day website. Each month features a new conservation theme, and offers a variety of tangible ways you can make a real difference.
If you're interested in reading this book, please visit your local library.
If you're interested in purchasing this book, we encourage you to buy locally and from an independent bookseller. You can purchase a good read and help The Ocean Project at the same time.

For any purchase you make online by linking directly from this website to either the legendary independent bookseller, Powell's, or an independent bookstore in your community participating with Book Sense (if the latter, they will prompt you for your zip code to find the closest participating bookstore), a small commission will be sent to The Ocean Project to help us continue our nonprofit educational mission, thanks to you!

Click here to order
from your local independent
bookseller

Click here to order
from Powell’s Books

If you have any suggestions for a future “Ocean Book of the Month”, please let us know. Send us your favorite recent or not-so-recent read so we can share it with all!

Visit
The Ocean Project
Web Site