Island of the Blue Dolphins

Island of the Blue Dolphins

Hardcover - USA - 1st edition

Author Scott O'Dell Published 1960-??-?? Type Fiction Genre Drama Themes Adventure, Coming of age, Drama, Survival Age Group Children

Island of the Blue Dolphins is the children's survival novel written by Scott O'Dell and published in 1960. The book won the Newbery Medal in 1961 and was adapted into a movie in 1964. A sequel called Zia was published in 1976.

The story is a highly fictionalized version of the real life account of a young Nicoleño Native America woman who was left alone on an island off the coast of Southern California after the rest of her tribe was taken away and survived for 18 years before being removed.

Personal

Own?	Paperback - USA - Clarion - 2010.
Read?	Audiobook read by Tantoo Cardinal.
Finished	2025-01-10.

My aunt suggested I read this book and shortly thereafter, a friend mentioned it was one of her favorites growing up, so I decided to read it. Not too long into it, I realized that I had seen at least half of the 1964 movie adaption in my youth, though I don't remember if I ever finished the movie, so I watched it fully in 2025.

Review

Overall:

Good

• While tragic, the book tells a very important account of how white men routinely abused and slaughtered Native Americans.
• Karana is a strong and clever character who uses her wits to keep herself alive for many years.
• I like how Karana re-tames Rontu and realizes how much less alone she feels once she has a dog to give her company.
• It's great that Karana goes against her tribe's sexist rules against women making weapons.
• Karana having to hide from the Aleut hunters creates a lot of good tension and the scene when Karana meets Tutok is well-constructed. I like how the two young women bond during their brief encounter.
• I like how she comes to terms with the wild dogs of the island.
• Rontu's death was quite sad and well-written. This was particularly difficult for me having put down my own dog only two days before I read it.
• For an audiobook recording, the publisher hired an actual native woman to read it.

Bad

• Most of the book is written very matter-of-factly, e.g.: I made this, I went there, I ate that, etc. This writing style may have been chosen to make it easier for children to read, but it leaves a lot of the book feeling flat. It could do with a lot more suspense and emotion.
• Examples for the point above include the battle between Karana's tribe and the Aleut hunters in which Karana's father is murdered, and Ramo's death to the wild dogs. In both scenes, Karana's grief should be palpable, but they're written in bland language devoid of emotion.
• I didn't care much for the white savior trope. The Spanish monks didn't "rescue" the natives, in the actual event, the natives were brought to a monastery, forcibly converted to Catholicism, and then most of them died in short order from the diseases of which they had no immunity.
• The scene where Karana discovers the idols of her ancestors starts out interesting, but nothing seems to come from it.
• Since there exists very little record of the Nicoleño language, and what does exist is largely untranslated, all of "Indian" words and names Karana uses were made up by O'Dell. I don't fault the author since this was done pretty much out of necessity, but I would have liked an author's note about it.

Ugly

• Like most books about Indigenous people written by white people, the book contains cultural problems. Although the author seems to have had the best intentions in mind, and researched the story and lifestyles of the indigenous Californian tribes, O'Dell's book has since been challenged by actual Native Americans who accuse him of using stereotypes and fabricating Native beliefs.

Media

Covers

• 

  Hardcover - USA - 1960 - 1st edition. A bit boring.

• 

  Paperback - USA - 2010. While it looks nice, everything about Karana and Rontu is wrong in this cover.

• 

  Paperback - Australia - 2017. A very attractive cover, though I don't think it represents a scene from the book.

Representation

Strong female character?	Pass	Karana is a clever and very self-sufficient woman who overcomes the limitations placed on her by her tribe.
Bechdel test?	Fail	Karana only briefly talks to her older sister Ulape, and it's often about men.
Strong person of color character?	Pass	Karana is a Nicoleño Indian.
Queer character?	Fail	There are no queer characters.

Adaptions

• Island of the Blue Dolphins - 1964 movie.

Quotes

— This section contains spoilers! —

• I never went to the cove and whenever I saw the hunters with their long spears skimming over the water, I was angry, for these animals were my friends. It was fun to see them playing or sunning themselves among the kelp. It more fun than the thought of beads to wear around my neck.
• Animals and birds are like people, too, though they do not talk the same or do the same things. Without them the earth would be an unhappy place.

Links