Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell

16 reviews

kickitupanotch7's review against another edition

adventurous challenging reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, and Death of parent

samuelbrown23's review against another edition

emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

This is my second time reading since my first time in middle school. I got say it is not as sad as I remember and long. I have new perspectives now that see the character is only force to comfort to ideas and emotions due to her environment. It did give me reminders of how things really go outside control very fast. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child death, Violence, and Animal death

amandas_bookshelf's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful informative inspiring fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Grief, Colonisation, Death of parent, Racism, Abandonment, and Animal death

orchidlilly's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

I'll be honest, I don't remember a lot of this book, other than it was utterly traumatizing and I loved every word of it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Grief, Cultural appropriation, Death, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Child death, and Colonisation

Moderate: War, Death of parent, Genocide, Murder, and Racism

Minor: Blood, Violence, and Gore

michaelion's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

I write this review as a person not Indigenous to the Americas.

There's something very iffy with a white man repurposing the story of an Indigenous woman. And then having that book be in the curriculum of California's elementary and middle school education! (I didn't read this book growing up; in fact I'd only learned about the woman baptized as Juana Maria within the past few years, and then found out there was a book inspired by her.) That being said, as a person who does not identify as Indigenous so take my review with a grain of sand, the appropriation isn't that bad. There's a few times in the book you can tell is so written from an outsider's voice trying to emulate something they really don't understand, and probably could never understand, but the whole book is written like a person trying to be careful and respectful about a sensitive topic, but also you remember they started their sentence by saying "If I could just play the devil's advocate for a second..."

When it comes to the writing, I realized about sixty pages in there would probably be no dialogue, which is tough for me because I truly believe that in any book dialogue IS the story, but I didn't find this book to be a drag. It wasn't hard to follow or be swept into, probably because it's a book written for kids, of course. Overall, I did not have as many complaints as I thought I would.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Child death, Animal cruelty, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment, Colonisation, and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent, Murder, Racism, War, Genocide, and Suicidal thoughts

jacelynspacin's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death and Animal death

Minor: Violence, Colonisation, Death of parent, and Gore

thesaltiestlibrarian's review against another edition

adventurous reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

So the survival bits were great. Love that type of story so much, it's primarily the video game genre I reach for nowadays too. It was just so...dry. The prose was, y'know...meh. Clinical. Could definitely have used some pizzazz in the gearbox.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Colonisation

Moderate: Child death

lain_darko's review against another edition

adventurous sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal death, and Child death

Moderate: Colonisation, Grief, and Death

wolfiegrrrl's review

adventurous emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

This story has stuck with me ever since I first read it as a child and, rereading it as an adult, it's easy to see why. There's something so striking about a child protagonist who is left to survive alone on an island that echoes with the whispers of everyone she has lost. Her anger, loneliness, grief, and even her eventual happiness are all so beautifully written. I smiled, I cried, and I held my breath in suspense from beginning to end. For a child who was fascinated by what I could learn from historical fiction, this book fueled my imagination and it still brought me back to that place all these years later.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Abandonment, and Grief

Moderate: Child death, Death, and Death of parent

Minor: Blood, Colonisation, and Violence

abomine's review

adventurous sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Animal death