Book review: The Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell

My summary:

Karana and her tribe live on The Island of the Blue Dolphins, after a tragic incident they decide they want to move to another island. One man sets out to find another island and one day a ship comes to get the rest of the tribe. All tribe members are on board and the ships sets sail, then Karana notices that someone from the tribe is standing alone on the shore. Karana won’t leave the person behind and dives into the water, this proves to be the start of a long and lonely period in Karana’s life.

My thoughts:

To be honest I found the novel to be a bit boring when starting out, but as soon as I adjusted to the pace of the novel (all books cannot be fast paced with a lot of action and romance) I was sucked into the story.

Karana’s story is a story of loneliness and survival and our main character is a strong girl. I wondered how Karana would manage to stay sane, find food and shelter and make it through the year. Karana had to trust her instincts and forget about the way of life for the tribe and their old myths, like the one saying that women couldn’t make weapon because if they did the weapon would let them down in a time of need.

Karana befriends some of the animals on the island in her loneliness and her friendship with the dog called Rontu will touch your heart.

I did not know that The Island of the Blue Dolphins was loosely based on a true story. In fact I didn't find out until I read the author notes at the very back of the book. That broke my heart and made the story even more touching.

The cover:

Very fitting to the story and the dolphins now represent hope to me just as it did to Karana.

My rating of this book:

4 stars out of 5\

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The Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell

Published originally: 1960
Pages(paperback): 184
Publisher: Yearling
ISBN: 0440439884 (ISBN13: 9780440439882)
Full disclosure: Mooched  

This book can be purchased from a number of local retailers and on-line book stores such as Amazon or The Book Depository (I'm not an affiliate of either). The latter store does by the way have free shipping to about 100 countries.