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Author and illustrator explored orcas’ home while creating ‘A Whale of the Wild’

Rosanne Parry has been curious about the huge animals since she heard them as a child.

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November 3, 2020 at 4:23 p.m. EST
Rosanne Parry’s lifelong curiosity about orcas prompted her to write “A Whale of the Wild.” She and illustrator Lindsay Moore visited the orcas’ habitat in the Salish Sea while researching the book. (Brian Garaths/Harper Collins/The Washington Post collage)

“Orcas are so intelligent and social,” said Rosanne Parry about the inspiration for her new novel, “A Whale of the Wild.” “And females are the leaders.”

Known as “toothed whales,” orcas are the largest members of the dolphin family. There are orcas in every ocean, but Parry’s characters are the type that eat salmon and live in the Salish Sea, along the coast of Washington state and the Canadian province of British Columbia.