Reviewed by Oscar
Rating: High Five!
Who I'd Recommend to: Fans of the Inheritance Cycle, the Young Samurai series, and Charmstone.
Synopsis (from Goodreads):
In the Pacific there is an island that looks like a big fish sunning itself in the sea. Around it, blue dolphins swim, otters play, and sea elephants and sea birds abound. Once, Indians also lived on the island. And when they left and sailed to the east, one young girl was left behind. — This is the story of Karana, the Indian girl who lived alone for years on the Island of the Blue Dolphins. Year after year, she watched one season pass into another and waited for a ship to take her away. But while she waited, she kept herself alive by building shelter, making weapons, finding food, and fighting her enemies, the wild dogs. It is not only an unusual adventure of survival, but also a tale of natural beauty and personal discovery.
Rating: High Five!
Who I'd Recommend to: Fans of the Inheritance Cycle, the Young Samurai series, and Charmstone.
Synopsis (from Goodreads):
In the Pacific there is an island that looks like a big fish sunning itself in the sea. Around it, blue dolphins swim, otters play, and sea elephants and sea birds abound. Once, Indians also lived on the island. And when they left and sailed to the east, one young girl was left behind. — This is the story of Karana, the Indian girl who lived alone for years on the Island of the Blue Dolphins. Year after year, she watched one season pass into another and waited for a ship to take her away. But while she waited, she kept herself alive by building shelter, making weapons, finding food, and fighting her enemies, the wild dogs. It is not only an unusual adventure of survival, but also a tale of natural beauty and personal discovery.
Thoughts: Island of the Blue Dolphins is an amazing, exciting, wilderness book. It's like a book from a character's perspective, but mostly teaching of different skills you use in the wilderness (it felt that way to me, at least). The writing was creative, from the perspective of keeping to the storylines of what previously happened - there's a pattern of sorts. For example, there was the dog, Ronku, who helped the main character many times. And when Ronku (spoiler) died, then the main character, Karana, was able to successfully capture Ronku's son, Ronku Aru, who then became Karana's dog. In this, Karana's dog dies, yet she is able to get another dog, keeping to the pattern. The author did an interesting thing in adding animal characters that became Karana's friends in the story, which I really liked. I loved the story and thought it was very creative how the author added in details to make the story fuller. Overall, it was just a really good, adventurous, exciting book. It may not seem like much in the beginning, but it improved so much on the fourth or fifth chapter and became amazing.
