Island of the Blue Dolphins

Book: Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell
Pages: 184
Finished: May 2008
Challenges:
** Spring Reading Thing 2008
** Heart of of a Child
** Young Reader's Challenge
** Celebrate the Authors Challenge
** Decades
** Hans Christian Anderson Challenge

First Sentence: "I remember the day the Aleut ship came to our island."

Last Sentence: "The little birds were chirping in their cage and Rontu-Aru sat beside me."

This book is a Newberry winner and is a book that I remember reading as a child. As noticed above, it was listed on several of my challenge lists. When I read it as a child I took it quite literally as a true story--but now as an adult I realize how much of this girl Robinson Crusoe's life is steeped in mystery. It is still a wonderful story and I can see how it has stood the test of time.


Amazon.com
Scott O'Dell won the Newbery Medal for Island of the Blue Dolphins in 1961, and in 1976 the Children's Literature Association named this riveting story one of the 10 best American children's books of the past 200 years. O'Dell was inspired by the real-life story of a 12-year-old American Indian girl, Karana. The author based his book on the life of this remarkable young woman who, during the evacuation of Ghalas-at (an island off the coast of California), jumped ship to stay with her young brother who had been abandoned on the island. He died shortly thereafter, and Karana fended for herself on the island for 18 years. O'Dell tells the miraculous story of how Karana forages on land and in the ocean, clothes herself (in a green-cormorant skirt and an otter cape on special occasions), and secures shelter. Perhaps even more startlingly, she finds strength and serenity living alone on the island. A gripping story of battling wild dogs and sea elephants, this simply told, suspenseful tale of survival is also an uplifting adventure of the spirit.