Island of the Blue Dolphins (original 1960; udgave 1971)

NA

A few weeks ago, a girlfriend of mine came down with THE SICKNESS. She was stuck in bed for like ten days straight, and it was up to me to entertain her. Remembering that my mom read this book to me when I was bedridden as a child, I thought it might make for a good read.

Island of the Blue Dolphins is very clearly a children's bedtime book. It reads a lot like a sitcom, each chapter something new and unrelated happens. And then the chapter ends, and something else happens. There's an earthquake. But everything is fine. She makes friends with an otter. She makes friends with a girl, who immediately leaves. That kind of thing.

So yeah, I get it. At ten minutes a chapter, IofBD is fun, yet episodic, enough to put someone to bed. I remembered loving it as a child, but it hasn't stood the test of time. ( )

This book is loosely based on a true story of a native girl who was left on an island for 18 years in the early 1800s.

Karana lived on the island with her people. Her father was chief, and she also had an older sister and younger brother. One day Aleut hunters come to the island. They offer a portion of the animals they hunt in return for permission to camp on the island for an extended hunt. But, when the hunt ends, they refuse to pay, offering only cheap trinkets instead of the food that they promised to share. A fight breaks out, and Karana's father is killed. Life changes for the tribe. They are afraid the Aleuts will return and kill more of them. So, when a ship arrives and they have the chance to leave the island and relocate, the villagers all board the ship bound for another land. But Karana's little brother has accidentally been left behind on the island. Karana has to make a choice....she dives into the sea and swims back to the island. She watches the ship sail away, and she is left on the Island of the Blue Dolphins with her brother. She spent 18 years on the island, waiting for a ship to come back to get her.

I loved this book when I was 12. I remember being totally impressed that this girl knew how to build shelter, how to hunt and cook food, and to survive. She battled the loneliness by befriending animals and keeping busy. The final chapter of the book gives some information about the actual legend of the girl that lived on the island alone from 1835-1853. I think O'Dell did an excellent job of fictionalizing the legend into a story of a young woman who was strong enough to survive.

The Island of the Blue Dolphins is today called San Nicolas and is located about 75 miles southwest of Los Angeles.
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Historical Fiction -

This is a true story written about Karana who is stranded on an island and has to figure out how to survive alone. The only threats on the island are the wild dogs and another tribe who arrives to hunt seals. The book was originally written based on the true story of Juana Maria in the 19th century on San Nichols Island.

I thought that this book was very interesting but a little hard to read. It wasn't very exciting until the last third of the book which I think would make it difficult for students to read and invest in. However, I do believe that when students do finish the book, they would look back and want to read it again.

The very first line waves a big red flag: "ships" were not an Aleut thing; the Unangan otter hunters, and the ship they arrived on, would have been under the command of Russians working for the Russian American Company. Granted, the young narrator would not have known that, but neither will the young readers who are the book's target audience. This, in a nutshell, is the story of Native history in the U.S.: non-Native writers establishing as "history" stories that fail to accurately reflect real events; consumed and accepted as fact by impressionable readers.
That "it's only a kids' book" is no excuse. Island of the Blue Dolphins should not be taught without accompanying corrective material to counter the false impressions it conveys.

Adult readers could start here: "Murder, Massacre, and Mayhem on the California Coast, 1814 –1815: Newly Translated Russian American Company Documents Reveal Company Concern Over Violent Clashes"
Susan L Morris, et al. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology; Vol. 34, No. 1 (2014); pp. 81–100.
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/islandofthebluedolphins/upload/JCGBA_34-1_Morris-et... ( )