4. Island of the Blue Dolphins

Island of the Blue Dolphins

By Scott O'Dell

Dell Publishing, 1960
Narrated by Tantoo Cardinal

Genre

Historical Fiction

Honors

• Newbery Award (1961)
• Lewis Carroll Shelf Award (1961)
• Southern California Council on Literature for Children and Young People (1961)
• Pomona Friends of the Library (1961)
• International Board on Books for Young People Honor List (1962)
• William Allen White Children's Book Award (1963)
• Jugendbuchpreis (1963 - Given by Federal Republic of Germany)
• Rupert Hughes Award
• Nene Award (1964)
• George C. Stone Center for Children's Books (1971)
• Children's Literature Association: "11 Best American Children's Books of the Past 200 Years" (1976)
• Omar's Book Award (1985)
• School Library Journal, Books That Shaped the Century (2000)

Review

Karana's life with her tribe in their small village of Ghalas-at had a routine - the men hunted, the woman gathered, and they all survived together.  Karana's father was the chief of the tribe and she spent much time with her brother and sister.  One spring, hunters Karana thought of as Aleut came to the island and changed everything.  The Aleut and the men of the tribe fought and many of the men, including Karana's father, died.  A new chief took a canoe to find white men who could bring a ship to take the rest of the tribe to safety.  When the white men came, the tribe boarded the ship, leaving their home behind.  Karana found that her brother had missed the ship and she jumped off the boat to go back for him.  The two of them made plans to survive while waiting for the ship to return, but her brother was killed.  Karana was alone on the island for a long time and overcame many struggles before a ship finally came for her.  Tantoo Cardinal narrates this beautifully written book, bringing the story to life and speaking Karana's language as though she had known it her whole life.  Her cadence was like waves, going in and out from the beach, calming and flowing over the reader as she tells about Karana exploring her home and learning to live alone.

Opinion

The edition of the book I have doesn't say until the end that this story is based off history.  I feel that O'Dell did a wonderful job telling what this woman's life may have been like on that island, but I wish the book was organized with this information at the front.  The audio book doesn't cover this short informational segment and I never knew this book was more than a fictional story until discovering this short in the back.  I enjoyed that it was different than much historical fiction I've read before, starting with a historical character and creating events around her, rather than starting with a historical time period and creating characters within it.

Ideas

This is a great book for an exhibit about American Indians since O'Dell goes into great detail about how they hunted, and also a little detail about the beliefs and language of Karana's tribe.  I also think this is a great book for young girls since it has a strong female main character survivalist.  Many books I've seen about young people living alone are about solitary boys or groups of youth.  This may be an empowering book for young female readers.