Far off the coast of California looms a harsh rock known as the island of San Nicholas. Dolphins flash in the blue waters around it, sea otter play in the vast kep beds, and sea elephants loll on the stony beaches. Here, in the early 1800s, according to history, an Indian girl spent eighteen years alone, and this beautifully written novel is her story. It is a romantic adventure filled with … filled with drama and heartache, for not only was mere subsistence on so desolate a spot a near miracle, but Karana had to contend with the ferocious pack of wild dogs that had killed her younger brother, constantly guard against the Aleutian sea otter hunters, and maintain a precarious food supply.
More than this, it is an adventure of the spirit that will haunt the reader long after the book has been put down. Karana’s quiet courage, her Indian self-reliance and acceptance of fate, transform what to many would have been a devastating ordeal into an uplifting experience. From loneliness and terror come strength and serenity in this Newbery Medal-winning classic.
In celebration of the book’s 50th anniversary, this edition has an introduction by Lois Lowry, Newbery Medal-winning author of The Giver and Number the Stars.
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It’s no wonder this book has won awards and remains, sixty years later, on bestselling lists. Beautifully written, the story is one that should be read by young teens as well as adults. Loosely based on a true event, Island of the Blue Dolphins tells the story of Karana, a 12-year-old girl, who is stranded alone for years on an island off the …
The book gives emotion. You connect with the characters feelings and you feel them with them. To experience this you need to read Island of the Blue Dolphin!!
It was the most boring thing I ever read
When I was a child this book opened up a whole new world to me. I discovered that books could take you far away and let you have adventures you never dreamed were possible.
Eleven
Loved this book as a kid!
Read this book as a kid. Loved it so much that I wanted to share with my granddaughters. The older one loved it as much as I did. Have to save it for awhile for the other one.
This was a absolutely amazing book, and I would recommend it to everyone who loves reading.
I read this at the age of 9 and was launched as a forever reader from that moment
My 5th grade teacher read our class this book 50 years ago. I loved it and couldn’t wait for the next chapter every day. It took me to a place so different from the world I knew.That book and that teacher reinforced my love for reading.
I taught it 5 periods a day for 13 years teaching public school English. Middle school girls loved it.
While I know that this book is usually considered “young adult fiction”, I have to say it was a lovely book to read as an adult. I picked it up after a Buddhist teacher recommended it as a “Buddhist read.”
Based on a true story, this historical fiction tells the story of a young girl who lives alone for years on an island off the coast of …
This was my first fantasy novel ever. I read it in the third grade (I’m 46 now) and I don’t remember much aside from a girl, stranded alone on an island and learning to survive, and a dolphin. But I recall how it made me feel. It was the first time I’d experienced the fictive dream and entered the story. I lived it. And I remember being moved in a …
This is the book I read in the third grade that first took me from my world and placed me in another. Thus began my love of literary escapism, and shaped me as a reader and writer. The strong girl who finds herself alone on an island must grow up fast and learn to provide for herself, as well as being inventive and using all her reasoning to …
AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I did not like this book. The reason I gave it two stars is because if you like adventure books then you would love this book. I thought it was boring and weird. It was cool how it was a girl surviving on her own without a man to help her and that it was based on a true story. Although I didn’t like it someone might.
It was a great book
Brilliant story of survival in the vein of ‘Robinson Crusoe’ only the hero of this story is a heroine. Loved it when I read it as a kid. Nice, strong female character.
Interesting
Some of most evocative yet spare prose I’ve come across in a book for young readers. Truly a classic that has influenced my own writing.