Scott O’Dell’s story of Karana is based on the real-life story of a 12-year old Indian girl stranded on Ghalas-at Island, off the coast of California. Her tribe was being evacuated from the island, but Karana jumped ship when she discovered her younger brother was left behind. He died shortly afterwards and now Karana is left completely alone. She’s pushed physically and emotionally to the limits. Can she keep herself alive until she’s rescued? What should she do about the pack of wild dogs roaming the area? Can she stand the overwhelming loneliness?

Island of the Blue Dolphins was read by Tantoo Cardinal
Tantoo Cardinal is a leading Native American actress that has worked in both film and television. Currently living in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, she was born in Fort McMurray, Alberta Canada and grew up in Anzac, Alberta. She is from the Métis tribe.

You may have seen her in the films Dances with Wolves, Legends of the Fall, Where the Rivers Flow North, and Smoke Signals. On television, you may have seen her in “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.”

What do YOU think?

What do you think Karana found most difficult about being stranded on the island? Why?

How did she choose to cope with this difficulty? If you were in the same situation, how would you cope with it?

Remember how Karana struggled to make a spear? She had never paid attention to how spears were made because spears were always made by the men. Karana’s tribe believed that there were jobs only men could do and jobs only women could do. Do you agree? Explain why.

Karana did not kill the leader of the dogs when she had the chance. What would you have done?

Do you think Karana felt sorry for herself? Give examples from the book to support your answer.

Compare your life to that of Karana’s. Was Karana’s life more difficult than yours? Was it easier? In what way(s)?

Fun & Adventure Beyond the Book

Island of the Blue Dolphins is based on the true story of the “Lone Woman of San Nicholas Island,” a Chumash Indian. Learn the true story from Jan Timbrook, Senior Associate Curator of Anthropology for the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.

Native American writer Julia C. White has several web pages dedicated to legendary Native American women, including “the Lone Woman of San Nicholas Island.”

Explore life as Karana lived it in her village, including the games she played and the foods she ate. A highlight of this site is a photo of a Chumash cave painting as well as their section on the Chumash language. For an interactive map of the Aleutian’s path to Karana’s island, check out this site .

‘The Chumash population was all but decimated in the 17- and 1800s by the Spanish mission system. Today, the remaining Chumash Indians live on the Santa Ynez reservation. Learn more about their history and culture at the tribe’s website.

The Spanish Missions of California were an important part of California’s history. Basically, the King of Spain ordered the missions to be built as a way to secure the California coast as Spanish property. This ThinkQuest website offers a virtual tour of a mission and describes what life was like for the Native Americans who lived and worked there. There’s even a recipe for pozole, a meat stew the workers usually ate for lunch. There are a ton of websites devoted to the missions, but in addition to the ThinkQuest site, this Scholastic site is a great place to start, along with the California missions site.

Sally Kirby has photographed dolphins in the wild for years. Her magnificent collection along with her fascination for these beautiful animals are featured on her website .



If You Like This Book, Check Out...

Grace Greene, from the Vermont Department of Libraries, thinks you’ll also enjoy:

Eckert, Allan. Incident at Hawk’s Hill. Little, Brown, 1971.
A shy, lonely six-year-old wanders into the Canadian prairie and spends a summer under the protection of a badger.

George, Jean Craighead. Julie of the Wolves. Harper, 1972.
While running away from home and an unwanted marriage, a thirteen-year-old Eskimo girl becomes lost on the North Slope of Alaska and is befriended by a wolf pack.

Hill, Kirkpatrick. Toughboy and Sister. McElderry, 1990.
The death of their drunken father strands ten-year-old Toughboy and his younger sister at a remote fishing cabin in the Yukon, where they spend a summer trying to cope with dwindling food supplies and hostile wildlife.

Hobbs, Will. Wild Man Island. HarperCollins, 2002.
After fourteen-year-old Andy slips away from his kayaking group to visit the wilderness site of his archaeologist father’s death, a storm strands him on Admiralty Island, Alaska, where he manages to survive, encounters unexpected animal and human inhabitants, and looks for traces of the earliest prehistoric immigrants to America.

Paulsen, Gary. Hatchet. Viking, 1988.
After a plane crash, thirteen-year-old Brian spends fifty-four days in the wilderness, learning to survive with only the aid of a hatchet given him by his mother, and learning also to survive his parents’ divorce.

Taylor, Theodore. The Cay. Doubleday, 1969.
When a freighter on which they are traveling is torpedoed by a German submarine during World War II, a twelve-year-old white boy, blinded by a blow on the head, and an old black man are stranded on a small desert island in the Caribbean where the boy acquires a new kind of vision, courage, and love from his old companion.