Island of the Blue Dolphins BookFiles Guide (PDF)

1 Scholastic BookFilesA READING Guide TOIsland of the Blue Dolphinsby Scott O Dell Patricia McHughCopyright 2003 by Scholastic rights reserved. Published by Scholastic ,SCHOLASTIC REFERENCE,SCHOLASTIC BookFiles , and associatedlogos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic part of this publication may be reproduced, or stored in a retrievalsystem, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without writtenpermission of the publisher.

2 For information regarding permission,write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataMcHugh, Patricia, 1954 Scholastic BookFiles : A Reading Guide to Island of the BlueDolphins by Scott O Dell/Patricia McHugh. p. cm. Summary: Discusses the writing, characters, plot, and themes of this 1961 Newbery Award winning book. Includes discussion questions and bibliographical O Dell, Scott, 1898 1989. Island of the Blue Dolphins Juvenileliterature.

3 2. California In literature Juvenile Survival in literature Juvenile literature. 4. Solitude inliterature Juvenile literature. 5. Indians in literature Juvenileliterature. 6. Islands in literature Juvenile literature.[1. O Dell, Scott, 1898 1989. Island of the Blue American literature History and criticism.] I. I836 2003813 .6 dc2120020424890-439-46369-61098765432103 04050607 Composition by Brad Walrod/High Text Graphics, and interior design by Red Herring DesignPrinted in the 23 First printing, July 2003 About Scott O Dell5 How Island of the Blue DolphinsCame About10 Chapter Charter: Questions to Guide Your Reading15 Plot: What s Happening?

4 21 Setting/Time and Place: Where in the World Are We?27 Themes/Layers of Meaning: Is That What It Really Means?32 Characters: Who Are These People, Anyway?40 Opinion: What Have Other People Thought AboutIsland of the Blue Dolphins ?47 Glossary50 Scott O Dell on Writing52 You Be the Author!55 Activities57 Related Reading60 Bibliography633 ContentsAbout Scott O Dell Always, I knew I would be a writer. Scott O DellWhen Scott O Dell was born in Los Angeles on May 23,1898, it was not the busy city it is today.

5 Los Angeleswas a frontier town when I was born there, O Dell said. It hadmore horses than automobiles and more jackrabbits than first sound I remember was a wildcat scratching on the roofof our house. O Dell grew up in California with his mother and father and ayounger sister, Lucile. Because O Dell s father worked for therailroad, the family moved often. They settled for a few years inthe seaside town of San Pedro, California, and later lived inJulian, California, near the Mexican border. For a while, thefamily even lived on an Island Rattlesnake Island , near SanPedro.

6 Their house was built on stilts, and when the tide camein, the seawater would wash under the the family moved, though, they were never far from thePacific Ocean or Los Angeles. That is why, I suppose, saidO Dell, the sound of the sea and the feel of the frontier are in my5books. Many of O Dell s experiences on the California coast laterbecame part of Karana s story in Island of the Blue O Dell was not the name the author was given at birth. Infact, it was quite the opposite: He was named Odell Scott!

7 Whenhe was a young adult, a typesetter accidentally switched the twowords. O Dell decided that he liked the new name better andlegally changed his Dell started school in a one-room schoolhouse, then attendedother, larger schools as his family moved from place to place. Healways liked to read. When O Dell was still in elementary school,his parents told him that he was related to Sir Walter Scott, thewell-known Scottish novelist. O Dell was so impressed that hedecided to become a writer himself when he grew high school, O Dell was a track star.

8 He graduated fromPolytechnic High School in Long Beach, California. School cameso easily to him that he never studied very hard. When he wentto college, he found that he did not know how to focus on hisstudies. That s why, he once said, he wandered from college tocollege. He studied only what interested him history, literature,philosophy, and psychology and never earned a college Dell s first job was reading movie scripts in Hollywood. Then heworked in the movie business as a set dresser preparing moviesets for different scenes and as a camera operator.

9 Later hesupported himself as a writer and editor for newspapers andmagazines. All the while, he was writing books for adults. He6wrote seven altogether, including novels, a guidebook toSouthern California, and a book about children s both World War I and World War II, O Dell was a soldier,though he never actually fought in either war. He was still intraining when World War I ended, and he was stationed in theUnited States during World War Dell lived for many years in California, where he loved to sailand fish.

10 For a while, he owned a sailboat that he sailed up anddown the western coast of North America between Alaska andMexico. O Dell was married twice, the second time to ElizabethHall. He became a stepfather to Hall s two children from herprevious O Dell wrote Island of the Blue Dolphins , his first children sbook, he was already in his early sixties. At a point in life whenmany people s careers are winding down, he was just beginning asecond career as a children s book author. It was a career thatwould quickly bring him praise from around the of the Blue Dolphinswas published in 1960 and wasawarded the 1961 Newbery Medal.