Island of the Blue Dolphins
by Scott O'Dell
List Price:
Our Price: $3.64
You Save: $3.35 (48%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Scott O'DellEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1987-03-01
ISBN: 0440439884
Number of pages: 192
Publisher: Yearling
Book Reviews of Island of the Blue Dolphins
Book Review: An exellent read!
Summary: 5 Stars
Karana jumped off of a boat to save her brother, and then spent eighteen years alone on an island in the Pacific. Karana and her younger brother Ramo, were son and daughter for the Chief of Ghalas-at, on the Island of the Blue Dolphins in the Pacific. When the Aleuts, Russians who come to their island every spring to hunt otter,refuse to pay their share of otter pelts, a war breaks out between them. Being no match to the Aleuts' guns and knives, all of the warriors and the chief are killed in the battle. The people of Ghalas-at then appoint a new chief, an elderly man by the name of Kimki, who decides to go to an island in the East in search of land to move their tribe to. Kimki did not return for many seasons, and everyone assumed him dead. When spring arrived again, plans were made between the people to flee on canoes they had hidden in a cave as soon as Aleut ships were spotted. When a ship finally arrives, everyone gets prepared to flee in the prepared canoes, until they realize that unlike the Aleut ship, this ship has white sails and is relatively smaller. The people were on the ship to take them away from that island. Everyone boarded on the ship, including Karana and her older sister Ulape, with their most prized possessions. Just as their ship leaves the cove and a storm is coming, Karana sees Ramo on the beach waving frantically and tells the captain to go back and get them. The captain tells her that he can't, so she jumps off of the boat to save him, destroying her best skirt that she was wearing. Ramo, proclaiming himself chief, goes to spear some fish for their dinner and never came back. Later Karana found him lying dead about a league from the beach, half eaten by a pack of wild dogs that Karana promises to avenge. Karana moves to the other end of the island to keep away from the memories of her friends and builds herself a crude hut out of wood, using a rock as two walls of her house. Karana built a fence out of whale ribs and bull kelp, with the ribs curved outward so that they were impossible to climb. Karana found many pets on the island, including four cormorant birds and two wild dogs. While she was on the island, Karana survived through many storms and even a tsunami and earthquake. Whenever the Aleuts came, Karana would hide in one of the multiple caves that were used by her past ancestors, and no one found her except for an Aleut girl named Tutok. They became friends and taught each other things in their own language until Tutok left. After eighteen years had passed, a ship that was not Aleut came and brought Karana to a missionary in California, where she learned that the ship that her people had sunk, along with her language and traditions, and never reached to the harbor. This is a very good book that tells the story of a young woman who persevered enough to survive by herself for eighteen years on an island.
Karana was willing to do whatever she needed to survive. Karana was told that if a woman made weapons, the world would open up and "swallow" her. or the sky would strike her with lightning. She made weapons anyway, but nothing happened to her. Karana had multiple homes on the island so that if someone found her mainland home they would not find her. She also found multiple springs and different paths to each spring so she would not wear a path to her house.
Karana had a lot of perseverence. She failed multiple times when she was trying to make a spear and a bow and arrow, and it took many ties to make one that would fly straight. When Karana found a giant devilfish in the water, she made a weapon that the men in her tribe would use to spear them, and kept holding on to the string that the spear was connected to so that she could drag to shore. When she finally reached the shore, her dog had gotten caught in it's tentacles and she was bruised from all of the suction cups on it's arms.
Wherever Karana was on the island, she always found something to do. When she was on the beach, Karana would play with Rontu, her wild dog pet, or hunt for fish and play with the otters. In the caves, Karana would look and explore the inner chambers that her ancestors used. One time she found a chamber that had the skeletons of three of her ancestors in it! Sometimes Karana would go to the rocks on the edge of the island and watch the walruses fight.
This book is extremely good. It can be emotional and adventurous at the same time, and is a great survival story. I would reccomend it to people of all age groups.
C. Brady
Summary of Island of the Blue Dolphins
In the Pacific, there is an island that looks like a big fish sunning itself in the sea. Around it blue dolphins swim, otters play, and sea birds abound. Karana is the Indian girl who lived alone for years on the Island of the Blue Dolphins. Hers is not only an unusual adventure of survival, but also a tale of natural beauty and personal discovery.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. This beautiful edition of Island of the Blue Dolphins is enriched with 12 full-page watercolor paintings by Ted Lewin, illustrator of more than 100 children's books, including Ali, Child of the Desert. 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. (Ages 9 to 12)
Issues Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Similar Books and other products
Maniac Mageeby Jerry Spinelli
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; Published: 1999-11-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.40
Price in other shops:
Number the Starsby Lois Lowry
Laurel Leaf; Sandpiper; Published: 2011-05-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.45
Price in other shops:
The Witch of Blackbird Pondby Elizabeth George Speare
Sandpiper; Sandpiper; Published: 2011-01-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.48
Price in other shops:
Bridge to Terabithiaby Katherine Paterson
Harper Collins Publishers; HarperCollins; Published: 1987-06-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.24
Price in other shops:
Hatchetby Gary Paulsen
Books; Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers; Published: 2006-12-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.19
Price in other shops:
My Side of the Mountain (Puffin Modern Classics)by Jean Craighead George
Puffin Books; Puffin Books; Published: 2004-04-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.62
Price in other shops:
By the Great Horn Spoon!by Sid Fleischman
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; Published: 1988-04-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.99
Price in other shops:
Charlotte's Web (Trophy Newbery)by E. B. White, Kate DiCamillo
Harper Collins Publishers; HarperCollins; Published: 1974-05-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.91
Price in other shops:
The Sign of the Beaverby Elizabeth George Speare
Yearling; Yearling; Published: 1994-07-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.22
Price in other shops:
A Wrinkle in Time (Madeleine L'Engle's Time Quintet)by Madeleine L'Engle
Square Fish; Square Fish; Published: 2007-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.50
Price in other shops: