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A review by emilyusuallyreading
Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell
5.0
What I Liked
This is a beautiful little book. I remember reading Island of the Blue Dolphins as a little girl and being both devastated and enchanted by Karana's life on the island.
Karana's voice is strikingly clear. Even though her narrative has surprisingly little description of emotion other than feelings of loneliness, she comes across as strong and very real.
One of the things that amazes me most about this book is how plausible it is. (For good reason: Island of the Blue Dolphins is based off a true story with an extraordinarily tragic ending.) A 12-year-old girl should not reasonably be able to survive for 18 years alone on a beautiful but very harshly-set island, but she did, in real life as well. Karana faces wild dogs, weather, injury, hunger, and a wicked devilfish... O'Dell explores how Karana makes it through years of solitude and extreme independence in ways that work. Not much is known about the true Lost Girl of San Nicolas Island, but O'Dell's writing is so beautiful and possible that one can't help but blend the two tales together.
What I Didn't Like
The middle and end of the novel grind on in a rather dull way. After the initial shock of Karana's isolation, her survival turns into that of day-to-day boredom. As a reader, I care less about how she weaves her skirts or gathers abalones every day and more about how she escapes from the pack of wild dogs or encounters the Aleuts. I would not recommend Island of the Blue Dolphins to every young reader, because those children who do not typically like reading would be easily bored by the detailed depiction of Karana's island life in this novel.
This is a beautiful little book. I remember reading Island of the Blue Dolphins as a little girl and being both devastated and enchanted by Karana's life on the island.
Karana's voice is strikingly clear. Even though her narrative has surprisingly little description of emotion other than feelings of loneliness
Spoiler
not even when her brother dies does she have much of an emotional reactionOne of the things that amazes me most about this book is how plausible it is. (For good reason: Island of the Blue Dolphins is based off a true story with an extraordinarily tragic ending.) A 12-year-old girl should not reasonably be able to survive for 18 years alone on a beautiful but very harshly-set island, but she did, in real life as well. Karana faces wild dogs, weather, injury, hunger, and a wicked devilfish... O'Dell explores how Karana makes it through years of solitude and extreme independence in ways that work. Not much is known about the true Lost Girl of San Nicolas Island, but O'Dell's writing is so beautiful and possible that one can't help but blend the two tales together.
What I Didn't Like
The middle and end of the novel grind on in a rather dull way. After the initial shock of Karana's isolation, her survival turns into that of day-to-day boredom. As a reader, I care less about how she weaves her skirts or gathers abalones every day and more about how she escapes from the pack of wild dogs or encounters the Aleuts. I would not recommend Island of the Blue Dolphins to every young reader, because those children who do not typically like reading would be easily bored by the detailed depiction of Karana's island life in this novel.