Six-year-old Dibs has never spoken a word. His older sister Amy thinks he's secretly smart, but no one knows for sure, until the family discovers a beached baby dolphin. Dibs bonds with the dolphin, named Baby Blue, and the things they learn from each other help both of them show their true intelligence.
Not to be confused with the first book of the Dolphin Trilogy.
Dolphin Boy contains examples of:
- Dumb Struck: Kaleb, who works at the aquarium where Baby Blue is living, wants to record her voice and play it out into the ocean in the hopes that her mother might hear. But Baby Blue is too sad to talk at first, before Dibs helps her feel happy again.
- Eyes Always Averted: Dibs never looks at anyone's face except for brief glances.
- Friendly, Playful Dolphin: Baby Blue loves playing with Dibs in the pool at the aquarium. She lets him hold onto her dorsal fin while she swims around.
- Hates Being Touched: Dibs normally doesn't tolerate touch. Amy is surprised to see him petting Baby Blue, and even more surprised late in the book when he snuggles up next to her and tries to get her to read him a bedtime story.
- Idiot Savant: Dibs can't speak, but he can draw beautiful pictures of sea creatures and almost perfectly mimic a huge variety of sounds.
- Never Learned to Talk: Dibs, despite his parents' efforts to teach him. Eventually he learns to say "Dib-dib" by teaching Baby Blue to mimic the sound. By the end of the book, he's picked up a small vocabulary of simple words.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Dibs' real name is Douglas, but no one ever uses it. His nickname comes from Amy's mispronunciation of his name when he was a baby.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: Dibs picks up on sounds Baby Blue makes that no one else can hear. He starts making dolphin-like whirs and buzzes, and before long is happily chatting with Baby Blue in her language, although he still can't speak English. Kaleb comments that psychologically, he seems to have more in common with dolphins than with humans.
