Island of the Blue Dolphins

1960, 1978 Laurel-Leaf edition
Scott O'Dell
Island of the Blue Dolphins
Original price $3.50, purchase price $3.40 (not much of a bargain)
Worn paperback with possible mold
B

I generally disagree with the Newbery committee(s) on their selections for best children's book of the year, or at least the winners of the last dozen years.  (Holes was great.)  Back in the 1960s, they had a surer touch, and this is a fine choice, although I'm not sure whether it would be my top pick.  (Newbery honor book The Cricket in Times Square is coming up.)

In any case, neither the Newberyites nor O'Dell could've known that the book would touch on issues that would become more relevant, specifically feminism and environmentalism.  Karana lives alone on the island for many years and learns to fend for herself, despite her father the chief's teachings that women shouldn't handle weapons.  Even before the other islanders have sailed away, but after Karana's father and most of the other men have been killed, there's cultural upheaval when the women take on some of the men's tasks and do a better job of providing food.

As for the environment, while Karana learns to hunt and fish, she eventually cuts back on it because she learns empathy with the other creatures on the island.  This goes beyond the idea of "to (not) kill a mockingbird," since in Lee's novel it's OK to kill sometimes, like with mad dogs.  Here, Karana even adopts a wild dog, although the pack killed her little brother.

Karana wouldn't even be "alone" on the island if not for annoying Ramo, who was left behind when the tribe sailed away.  Karana jumped ship to get him, but the others never came back for them.  Six-year-old Ramo was always pointlessly disobedient, as opposed to Karana who disobeys for good reasons, and this is probably blaming the victim, but his disobedience eventually leads to his death.  Significantly, Karana doesn't miss him, although she does miss their elder sister Ulape.  When the Aleuts visit the island, she befriends the one woman, but she has to be careful because the Aleuts are enemies of her people.

Like a Little House book, part of the appeal of this story is the how-to aspect.  Karana is clever and creative, although I like how she's not perfect, sometimes failing.  (This is not Jean Auel's "And then she invented the wheel" Earth's Children series.)  Like Scout in Mockingbird, she's looking back as an adult, and we know that the real life girl she's based on lived on the island for 18 years before being "rescued."  The ending is bittersweet, since although Karana is happy to hear human voices again, she has to give up much of what she's loved on the island, including her beautiful cormorant skirt, in order to be "civilized."

It really is a very 1960s book, at a time when other works still feel so '50s.