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3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
Island of the Blue Dolphins is a fictional tale based on the true story of a young native woman who lived alone on the island of San Nicolas off the coast of California for 18 years. This book won a Newbery Award, and that's not very surprising - it's a well written tale. One of the things I liked best about this book is that it gave the reader room to mentally fill in the main character's reactions to events in the story instead of being burdened by overly introspective mental dialogue. I enjoyed seeing her develop and change over the course of the story. It's clearly a great book to give kids and ask them questions to really get them thinking about human adaptation.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-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:
No
Stumbled on a copy of this the other day and couldn't resist. This might be the first book I ever reread, and I did so at least 3 times as a kid. I spent a lot of brain time on this island. O'Dell's writing is spare and unadorned and forces you to create a great deal of the novel yourself by denying you the details. It would have been very easy to over-write this novel, but O'Dell steadfastly resists that impulse. The story is based on the life of the Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island (about 75 miles SW of LA), and it's no surprise that I got sucked in by this tale of survival in isolation. The surprise in rereading was how well done this is. I thought it would be a simple reminiscence, but this is a fine novel--without qualification.
An amazing story with romance heartbreak and courage that I wish I had. This woman is strong and can basically deal with ANYTHING! I loved this story, and the action and adventure that was stored inside.
read this when i was in elementary school, a pleasant read
Karana's tribe and family are killed and/or leave her home island of San Nicolas. She's then forced to learned to survive on her own for the next 18 years.
This rating is probably peppered with quite a bit of nostalgia but I really enjoyed this reread. Being a big fan of Jean M Auel's earlier Earth Children novels I found there were more than a few similarities between the stories, to the point where some details in Auel's works seem to be directly influenced by O'Dell's. I plan to put this copy out in our little library and I hope some of the neighbor kids (or nostalgia seeking adults) enjoy it as well.
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
sad
medium-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:
Complicated
medium-paced
adventurous
hopeful
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No