The Island of The Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell

Karana’s tribe lives on the Island of the Blue Dolphins. At times they are bothered by Aleuts who come to take otter from the island.

As the story begins, the Aleuts, with a Russian captain, return. They agree to pay the islanders for being allowed to take more otter. But, when it is time to leave, there is a disagreement and a fight. Many of the men on the island are killed. A ship comes to take the tribe to the mainland. At the last moment, as the ship is departing, Karana sees her brother, Ramo, still on shore, jumps into the water and swims for shore. Ramo is soon killed by wild dogs on the island. Karana tried to follow her tribe by using one of the canoes, but has to return to the island because the canoe leaks too badly.

Karana realizes that she will be on the island indefinitely and builds a permanent shelter. She injures the leader of the wild dogs, but does not kill him. Instead, she cares for him until he is healthy. They become friends. The Aleuts return. Karana and an Aleut girl from the ship become friends, but she leaves and Karana is lonelier than she was before the girl arrived. The island endures an earthquake and a tsunami. A rescue ship arrives, but immediately departs, without connecting with Karana, because of bad weather. Several years later the ship returns and rescues her.

Another story woven into the main story is the story of Karana’s relationship with the dog, Rontu. Rontu came from an Aleut ship. He became the leader of the wild dogs on the island. He was their leader when they killed Ramo, Karana’s brother. Karana injured him during a revenge attack on the pack, but did not proceed to kill him. Instead, she cared for him until he was healthy. They became friends. Once he got into a fight with his former pack. Karana wanted to help him, but felt that it would be better not to do so. Rontu lived many years and died of old age. Karana put him to rest in a carefully prepared grave. Later, she befriended another island dog who was obviously his son.

A third story that is woven into the main story, but that is of less importance, is the story of Karana and the devilfish. In their first encounter the devilfish (octopus) used a black liquid to hide himself and get away from Karana. Karana did not give up. She looked forward to the time when she would kill him. She tells us that “Devilfish is the best food in the seas.”

She was occupied with other concerns for a while, but eventually she and Rontu began to search for the devilfish every day. Then, they gave up temporarily. One day, when they were not searching for him, Rontu spotted the devilfish again. Karana tried to catch it, and after a long struggle, she succeeded in killing it. By this time her strength was gone. Her success did not make her happy. That was the last giant devilfish that she killed.