Island of the Blue Dolphins, Newbery Winner 1961

Of all the Newbery Award winners I had read previously, this was possibly the one I read the fastest. I picked up Island of the Blue Dolphins one day in the middle of a snowstorm and read through it very quickly. It is by no means short compared to a lot of the works I have read, yet it is so exciting that it is nearly impossible to put down!
One of the reasons that this book is so interesting is that it is based, however loosely, of a true story. The most gripping parts of the tale are true, but what Scott O'Dell writes only augments the original tale - a young girl living alone on an island after her people leave. It is among the most straightforward example of person vs. nature that you can find, yet reading it gives you a sense that it wasn't so much Karana vs. the island but that Karana was a part of the island.

Here is an overhead shot, it is Navy owned now I can't find any really good photos.

 

I found it to be a fascinating story, certainly one of the best in the sub-genre of survival. I can also appreciate Karana's attitude in much of the story, she is not angry, though she can be very sad and lonely. But what I truly love is her fondness for animals. My own family has a large menagerie consisting of three cats, and three dogs, with an additional fish that I keep at college; over the years though we have owned 4 dogs, 6 cats, a gerbil, 3 hamsters, 2 newts, 2 salamanders, dozens of snakes (winter relocation project), 2 rabbits, and a hedgehog. This doesn't even touch on the numerous animals that we have taken in that were lost (seriously, our house is like an operating branch of the Humane Society) or injured, such as a pigeon that lived in our grill while we fed it and it recuperated. In fact, the last cat that became a permanent resident was hit by a car on the street just in front of our house, we were going to bury him, but discovered that he was alive. The Humane Society fixed him up and when he was put up for adoption nearly a month later I went down and paid the price. He is funny looking, basically he broke half his face, but he fits into our family so smoothly.

Karana also took in the injured animals, likely because she was lonely. I cannot imagine never being able to talk to anyone; I get restless after a couple days of only relative solitude. Overall this is among the most powerful narratives, the first-person viewpoint really sucks you into the story, I will definitely be offering this book in my classroom (which is closer than ever as I'm about to start student-teaching!)