Wilderness
survival is a great topic for literature. It allows the reader to ask, “What would I do if I were stranded in the
wild?” without leaving the comfort of his or her own home. The genre’s
popularity spans the centuries, from Robinson
Crusoe (1719) to Swiss Family
Robinson (1812) to Lord of the Flies (1954)
to the film Cast Away (2000). It only
follows that a children’s novel of the same genre would be clamored for, and to
fit in that niche I submit Island of the
Blue Dolphins, by Scott O’Dell and…wait for it…another Newberry Award
winner. (There’s also My Side of the
Mountain by Jean Craighead George, but I wasn’t introduced to that book
until after my childhood). As the genre demands, O’Dell skillfully takes the story
of a young girl alone on an island and makes it fascinating for all 29
chapters.
Scott O’Dell, Island
of the Blue Dolphins, Houghton Mifflin, 1960.
Karana
is a young girl belonging to a tribe of Native Americans who live on a small
island off the coast of California. Her island is visited by a group of Russian
trappers, who ask her father’s permission to hunt the otter that live just off
the coast. The two groups strike a trade bargain, but when the Russians prepare
to leave, they pay a fraction of the agreed-upon price. This sparks a battle
between the natives and the Russians, leaving most of the tribe’s men (including
Karana’s father) dead. The new leader of the tribe takes a canoe and sails off
in search of new land to support the group, and some time later sends a ship
back for the rest of the tribe. On the morning of the ship’s departure, as it
pulls away from land, Karana realizes that her little brother, Ramo, is not on
board. In desperation she jumps off the ship and swims back to shore, finding
Ramo on the beach. By that time, however the ship is too far gone for the
siblings to join it.
They
reason that another ship will come for them in time, and set out to make the
best of their situation. They find their empty village stripped of any leftover
food by the pack of wild dogs that roams the island, and must forage for their
meals. The next day Ramo decides to fetch a canoe and paddle it around to the village
side of the island. Karana laughs at him, telling him he is too small, but
letting him go nonetheless. She waits near the village for him to come around
in the canoe, and as more time passes, she grows uneasy. Finally she goes in
search of him, and finds him dead, killed by the wild dogs. Grief-stricken, she
carries him back to the village and vows to somehow kill the dogs.
She
decides not to live in the village, now haunted by memories of so many people
now gone. After a while she decides to try and strike out for the land to the
west in one of the canoes the tribe left behind. After making careful
preparations, she sets off, only to get lost at sea after a few days.
Eventually she finds her way back to the island, and decides that she must stay
there until outside help comes. She makes a new home for herself, adding to it
over time. At one point she finds the remains of a whale carcass, and uses its
ribs to fashion a fence around her house.
She
does succeed in killing some of the wild dogs, but forms an unlikely friendship
with the pack’s leader, whom she names Rontu. Rontu leaves the pack for Karana
and becomes her constant companion. She does see the Russians again, perhaps a
couple years into her isolation. She doesn’t dare reveal herself to them, and
instead hides during their stay. However, she does reveal herself to the woman
accompanying the hunters, and although the two women do not share a language,
they are able to communicate by hand signals. The hunting party leaves soon
afterward, and Karana is left alone again. By this time she has made friends
with a variety of animals on the island, including a pair of birds and a couple
of otters. She has made weapons and can hunt as well as any man, and has a
decent life for herself. Finally,
many years after she was abandoned as a child, a ship comes bearing men from a
mission in Southern California, near where her people landed. She packs up her
things, including her dog and two birds, and sets sail for the mainland,
watching her island as it fades into the distance.
This
narrative is actually based on a true story. Known as the Lone Woman of San
Nicolas Island, this member of the Nicoleño tribe lived by herself on the
island from 1835–1853. Upon her rescue she was brought to the Santa Barbara
mission and taken under the care of Father Gonzales. Her language could not be
understood, but she and the Californians were able to communicate to some
extent. O’Dell turns this story into a piece of children’s historical fiction,
and it works extremely well. Obviously this novel is not meant to be taken as a
literal interpretation of the Lone Woman’s time spent on San Nicolas, but the
fact that it is tied to actual events serve to make the reader care about
Karana that much more. Her survival skills and sharp thinking are engaging to
read about, and whenever I read her story, a (very) small part of me wants to
be stranded right along with her on that island. It’s a scenario that will
obviously never happen to any of O’Dell’s readers, but reading about it gives
you the fun without the inconvenience. Look for this one on the award-winner
shelf of the kid’s section in any bookstore or library. Happy reading!
