Island of the Blue Dolphins Lesson Plan

Island of the Blue Dolphins, a 1961 Newbery Award winner and recipient of numerous other awards, is a children’s novel that tells the story of a native girl, Karana. The novel opens when a ship of Aleuts arrives on her island, disrupting the peaceful life of the villagers. When a different group of white men arrive over a year later, the remaining villagers leave with them, abandoning Karana and her little brother on the island. After wild dogs kill her brother, Karana is alone. At first, she plans to avenge her brother’s death, but after injuring the leader of the wild dogs, she tames him and grows to love both him and the many animals on and offshore. After an attempt to leave the...