Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell
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Book Reviews of Island of the Blue Dolphins
Book Review: surviving in the wild
Summary: 5 Stars
Book: Island of the Blue Dolphins
Author: Scott O'Dell
Publisher: A twelve-year-old student at Cutchogue east elementary school in Cutchogue, NY
Imagine that you are an 11-year-old girl hiding in the bushes and watching all of your soldiers die. Envision Russian fishermen leaving a chest thinking there were no survivors. Well Karana experienced this. She and a few others in her tribe were left watching the Russians ship leave the island.
Karana who is the main character is pretty and broad. She is courageous in this wild adventure.
Karana's father who was the leader of their clan on The Island of the Blue Dolphins died in battle. An old elder named Kimki was assigned the new leader. He knew that there was an island to the west and he took a canoe filled with resources to get help from afar. The people on the Island of the Blue Dolphins knew that Kimki would take long before he would come back. They made a new leader and waited. One day they saw a ship with white sails and hid. The ship had come to pick them up Kimki had sent them. It was a rough day and they had to leave soon. They boarded what they thought was everybody, but Karana saw her little brother on the beach. She jumped off, swam to him, and comforted him. The ship said they would come back. But soon misery will strike Karana what would cause such a thing? It is the beginning of many ordeals.
An incident in this story is when Karana falls asleep in her canoe. When she woke up a tidal wave was going to hit the island. Karana was grabbing onto a cliff on two short little ledges. Will she survive this? Will she be washed away forever?
This is a breathtaking book. Once you start it you will not want to put it down! This book is uplifting at some points and at other points you feel like you're going to shed tears.
This books theme is that if you have to survive in the wild you can adapt and learn to survive.
Karana learned how to survive in the wild in this bone chilling adventure. She risked the chance of getting curses from her gods and made weapons. How will Karana survive? Will she get off the island? If you want to read a good realistic fiction book read, Island of the Blue Dolphins but Scott O'Dell.
Book Review: Awsome Book!
Summary: 5 Stars
I am a 7th grade middle school student at Kopachuck Middle School. I enjoyed this book very much. I think one of the key reasons I enjoyed this book so much is because of the way Scott O'Dell decided to write from Karana's point of view. Karana's amazing adventure to survive on the island she was born and raised on was fascinating to me. Karana and her village were going to be taken to another island on a large ship, But as the ship is leaving the shore and is out at sea Karana can't find her younger brother Ramo any were. She looks to the shore and there he is running along the cliff with his fishing spear in hand. She tries to get the ship to return to shore but it won't because of strong winds. She dives from the ship and swims to shore. The ship leaves with out them. Tragedy strikes on the first night they are left alone on the island. Ramo, while off exploring is attacked and killed by a pack of wild dogs. Karana happens to see the face and eyes of the pack leader, she will remember them always. Karana, now alone on the island has to survive until the ship returns, if it ever does. While on the island she has to hunt for food and keep it away from the pack of wild dogs still roaming the hills. She builds a new shelter and creates weapons from the materials around her. One of the most surprising elements of the story is when Karana befriends the leader of the wild dogs and calls him Rontu. Rontu soon becomes Karana's best friend. He lives with and protects her. For a long while Rontu and Karana hunted together. Then one day Rontu and Karana were testing a canoe and exploring caves when they came upon a "devilfish". A devilfish is an octopus or squid. For many days they hunted it. Then they killed it. They had many adventures together. There are more surprises in the book. There were a lot of tragedies in this story, but I think that is what made this story so fascinating and it always had me at the edge of my seat. This book is the first of Scott O'Dell's books that I have read. Every time I read it, it still keeps me drawn in to the story. This is probably my favorite book. Review by Nikki
Book Review: Read this wonderful book!
Summary: 5 Stars
Island of the Blue Dolphins, written by Scott ODell, is a beautifully scripted novel of adventure, survival, and courage. A young Indian girl has been left alone on an island off the California coast. She is forced to endure many miserable and exciting events. Scott O'Dell's descriptive writing style creates a lively novel.
The production of this book is super. The cover is purple, my favorite color, so my eyes went right to the book in the book store. On the cover is a picture of a young girl with sad eyes. I wanted to now why she was so sad. There is a gold medal on the cover and that made me think it had won a prize. THe printing is just the right size for second graders and is easy to read. There are no pictures, but you don't need them because Scott O'Dell writes in a very descriptive way. An example is when Ranco describes the sea as "a smooth stone without any scratches." All these things helped me thoroughly enjoy The Island of the Blue Dolphins.
Island of the Blue Dolphins is a story about the many challenges a young girl, Karana, faces while living alone on an island. In order to survive, Karana must learn to hunt, fish, build shelter, and make weapons to protest herself against a pack of wild dogs. She is threatened by a terrifyintg tsunami and harsh winter rainstorms.
This is a realistic and exciting book. Karana has to work very hard to surive on the island. It takes her "many, many days" just to find wood for shelter. Then, it takes her "half of the winter" to finish her shelter. You can get very involved with Karana's story because you root her on to survive.
In my opinion, Island of the Blue Dolphins is an extraordinary book. I would give this book five stars. I would recommend this book for children that are seven and up because it deals with the subject of death. I think girls would enjoy this book because the main character is a very courageous young lady. This is a wonderful book with lots of adventure and surprises. This book is so good that I got up every morning at six o'clock to finish it. Read this wonderful book!
Book Review: Jonathan @ Hines
Summary: 5 Stars
Island of the Blue Dolphins is a book about an Indian woman who was left behind by her tribe and she and her brother had to live on an island alone and fend for themselves. Karana is the daughter of the chief of her village. One day her father is killed by another tribe who was making trouble on their island. A new chief named Kimki comes to power and leaves in search of a new area to settle. One day a boat full of white men come claiming that they were sent by kimki to bring them to the new settlement. Unfortunately Karana and her brother are left behind and they have to live on the island alone. Not too long afterwards Karana's brother is killed by a pack of wild dogs. Later Karana kills most of the dogs and wounds the alpha male. Karana decides to nurse the dog back to health and they become best friends and she names him Rontu. Years later Rontu dies and Karana tames his son and names him Rontu-aru. Eventually another ship arrives and Karana meets up with her tribe. I would definitely recommend this book.
Parts of this book were strange. Like the very dog that killed Karana's brother she rescues and nurses back to health. She and the dog become great friends despite the fact that its pack killed her brother, Rontu even defends her against his own pack.
Even though Rontu dies this book has a generally happy ending. First of all Karana makes her way back to her tribe. Also she leaves along with Rontu-aru Rontu's son who she tamed just like she did with Rontu.
Karana seems to feel no hard feelings towards anyone no matter what they did to her or her family. Like one day a girl from the tribe that killed her father comes and she talks to her and later they become friends. Although at first Karana is suspicious of her.
This was a very interesting book and I really enjoyed reading it. I like reading books where people have to survive in the wild so I had fun reading this book. I would definitely recommend reading this book to anyone.
Book Review: A Book That Makes You Want to Stop and Smell the Seaweeds
Summary: 5 Stars
I've found that Newberys (the kind with one r-not two) often have a bittersweet flavor to them, and "Island of the Blue Dolphins" is no different. It's the kind of story that deliciously melts into the recesses of your imagination, but at the same time makes you squint your eyes to hold back the tears.
As I'm sure most people reading this review already know, the book, loosely based on true events, is about Won-a-pa-lei, a native girl who gets left alone on an island off of the California Coast for nearly two decades in the 1800s. Actually the young woman's name is Karana. But that's her "secret name," and it would be impolite of me to wear it out.
One might imagine that an entire book about a girl living by herself on an island would be a bit boring. However, I lied above when I said she's alone. In actuality, Kara . . . uh, I mean Won-a-pa-lei, is not alone. When deprived of human contact, she turns to the creatures of the island for companionship. Dogs, birds, sea otters, and, yes, even a few dolphins, all help Won-a-pa-lei to feel like part of a community in a world without people.
Although the story is written in a first-person perspective, our narrator rarely gets lost in her emotions. Instead, readers are left to discover the emotions for themselves as Won-a-pa-lei faces the joys and sorrows of existence. The passage of time is also artfully fluctuated, slowing down to show the perils of daily life, and then speeding up to show seasonal weather patterns, animal life cycles, and the never-ending tick-tocking of mother nature's clock.
In a fast-paced society where every man, woman, child, and newborn seems to have a cellphone, "Island of the Blue Dolphins" gives us a brief glimpse into life at its most elemental level-a human being living as one with her natural environment, and surviving not only physically in the face of adversity, but mentally as well. This story is mandatory reading for anyone planning to get stranded on a deserted island. And it's not too bad for the rest of us either.