Island of the Blue Dolphins is a unique story about a young Nicoleno girl named Karana who learned how to survive on an island by herself after her tribe abandoned her.
Most of the plot in this story is focused on Karana’s will to survive as she abandons traditional gender roles prescribed by her tribe in favour of taking the duties of both men and women in order to live. Winning a Newberry Medal in 1961, this book continues to be a source of empowerment and adventure to any reader who decides to follow Karana’s story.
The main character in this novel, Karana, is an unlikely heroine. Not only is Karana a woman of colour, (a trait severely lacking in popular YA heroines today), but she focuses solely on surviving and keeping her resilient spirit throughout this book.
Though Karana does face tension among some characters in the book, she is left alone to survive throughout the entire book with only a dog as her companion. The lack of love interests, major long-lasting conflicts with other characters and other popular themes found in the children/YA genre only shows the tremendous skill of Scott O’Dell, who could somehow gear a book about survival to children and have children actually enjoy it.
O’ Dell’s use of effective imagery transports the reader to a wild and deserted island. Moreover, this use of imagery combined with the brief yet accurate descriptions of island life, creates a silent yet introspective mood throughout the entire book that allows the reader to mull over Karana’s plights and triumphs.
Sometimes, in order to make a story about different cultures or customs more accessible to readers, an author can fall into a plight of having the entire tone of their book sound condescending and generally unappealing. Thankfully, this book does not fall into this category.
The most interesting part of this story was that it was based on the true story of Juana Maria or ‘The Lone Woman of the San Nicolas Island’, who was left alone on the island for 18 years and ‘re-discovered’ in the mid 1800’s. And though O’Dell does not focus his story on the events that concerned Juana Maria, such as colonialism, the resistance to westernization and the loss of identity, the reader can still find the resilient spirit of Juana Maria or Karana throughout this book.
Overall, this book deserves a 4.5 out of 5 stars for portraying the resilient beauty and strength of a brave girl.
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