This book is a true story about a 12 year old girl called Karana who is stranded on an island and has to work out how to survive. Her main enemies on the island are the wild dogs and she lives in fear of the Aleuts (a tribe who arrive on the island to hunt seals).

Solution: In this scene Karana is at the highest point on the island and now she is by herself on the island with the wild dogs. Soon Karana kills five of the dogs and the dogs feel she is dominant, so they are not as violent.

The main conflict in this book is resolved through Karana’s resourcefulness and her courage. The main conflict in this book is the conflict between Karana and nature (and a few humans). She is trying to survive all alone on the island. The only way that she can survive is by being very brave and very clever.

Though Ramo is young, he is very confident and tries to do many things on his own. One morning, Karana awakes to find that Ramo is gone. She goes out to look for him, only to find him dead, killed by the wild dogs of the island.

Eventually, even the otters stop their migration, which is when Karana knows that there are no otters left that remember the Aleuts. That same summer, Karana stops keeping track of time as she normally has by marking a pole beside her house.

Karana’s leg wound is very serious, so she stays in her house to recover for five days. It is only when she runs out of water that she forces herself to leave again..

Karana decides to leave the island because she realizes that the life she leads on the island, isolated and severed from social connection, is not a viable one. Although she ends up making a life for herself on the island, her interactions with Tutok proves that there is a certain loneliness and desolation in her life.

She wants to escape the Aleuts. D. She is frightened.

How did Karana feel when she finally reached the island? She felt tired, relieved, happy and mad. Karana left the island because she could not bear to live there alone another day; yet when she returned she felt happy.

A few months later, Karana discovers that Mon-a-nee is feeding the fish she gives him to some baby otters that follow him everywhere. She then realizes that Mon-a-nee is actually a girl, and that these smaller otters are her daughters..

I never killed another otter

pretty

The word “nanomónestôtse” (pronounced NAH-noh-MAH-nay-STOHT-say) means “peace” in the Cheyenne language.

Black Cave is near the place where the people of Ghalas-at stored their canoes to escape the Aleuts. While rowing, Karana sees a hawk fly out of the cave and goes in to explore. Inside, she and Rontu find a row of figures made from reeds and clothed in gull feathers.

Karana names the otter Mon-a-nee, which means “Little Boy with Large Eyes.” Mon-a-nee is difficult to keep fed, however, and after three days that Karana cannot feed him because the sea is too rough to fish, she returns to the tide pool to find that he has gone back to the ocean.

It’s after this time together that she tells Tutok her secret name: Karana (22.12).

It is based on the true story of Juana Maria, a Nicoleño Native American left alone for 18 years on San Nicolas Island during the 19th century. Island of the Blue Dolphins won the Newbery Medal in 1961….Island of the Blue Dolphins.