Far off the coast of California looms a harsh rock known as the island of San Nicholas. Dolphins flash in the blue waters around it, sea otter play in the vast kep beds, and sea elephants loll on the stony beaches.
Here, in the early 1800s, according to history, an Indian girl spent eighteen years alone, and this beautifully written novel is her story. It is a romantic adventure filled with drama and heartache, for not only was mere subsistence on so desolate a spot a near miracle, but Karana had to contend with the ferocious pack of wild dogs that had killed her younger brother, constantly guard against the Aleutian sea otter hunters, and maintain a precarious food supply.
More than this, it is an adventure of the spirit that will haunt the reader long after the book has been put down. Karana's quiet courage, her Indian self-reliance and acceptance of fate, transform what to many would have been a devastating ordeal into an uplifting experience. From loneliness and terror come strength and serenity in this Newbery Medal-winning classic.
In celebration of the book's 50th anniversary, this edition has an introduction by Lois Lowry, Newbery Medal-winning author of The Giver and Number the Stars.
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**My thoughts**
I've been revisiting a lot of my childhood favorites lately. Island of the Blue Dolphins start popping up in various places, so I curled up with it one recent evening to reread for the umpteenth time since I was 9 (though probably not for at least a decade).
For me, the magic is still there. Karana has a strength and determination in her spirit that I still admire. I found myself questioning now, as I did back then, whether I would make it all alone on an island for 18 years. Probably not. But we know that at least one woman did.
The book was inspired by a woman who lived alone on an island for 18 years. But especially as an adult, I understand that this book is pure fiction. No one really knows the truth about how the woman came to be alone on the island, nor how she actually survived all of those years, though the author did extensive research into the people of the area and the time. I especially appreciated the extra insights given in the 50th anniversary edition of the book, including the introduction written by beloved author Lois Lowry.
As an adult, I appreciate the story of survival and how Karana develops a strong love for nature and the world around her. I think a focus on these themes - and that women are capable of doing the same things men can - is what is most important and outweighs trying to teach this as a nonfiction historical text, which it is not. But it is such a good story.
I understand that Scott O'Dell later wrote a sequel. I have no idea what that could possibly be, but it is in my TBR pile.
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