O'Dell, Scott Books

Island of the Blue Dolphins (Illustrated)

Scott O'Dell

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 611 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Scott O'Dell won the Newbery Medal for Island of the Blue Dolphins in 1961, and in 1976 the Children's Literature Association named this riveting story one of the 10 best American children's books of the past 200 years. O'Dell was inspired by the real-life story of a 12-year-old American Indian girl, Karana. The author based his book on the life of this remarkable young woman who, during the evacuation of Ghalas-at (an island off the coast of California), jumped ship to stay with her young brother who had been abandoned on the island. He died shortly thereafter, and Karana fended for herself on the island for 18 years.

O'Dell tells the miraculous story of how Karana forages on land and in the ocean, clothes herself (in a green-cormorant skirt and an otter cape on special occasions), and secures shelter. Perhaps even more startlingly, she finds strength and serenity living alone on the island. This beautiful edition of Island of the Blue Dolphins is enriched with 12 full-page watercolor paintings by Ted Lewin, illustrator of more than 100 children's books, including Ali, Child of the Desert. A gripping story of battling wild dogs and sea elephants, this simply told, suspenseful tale of survival is also an uplifting adventure of the spirit. (Ages 9 to 12)

The Black Pearl (Newberry Honor Book)

Scott O'Dell

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 73 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

A boy who longs to prove himself a man 3 out of 5 stars.
6 of 7 people found this review helpful.

Some of Scott O'Dell's works are great, some are standard, and some are not worth the time. I was disappointed in this one. The plot is okay I guess, but it seems to lack anything very substantial, and is full of superstition. It tells the story of a son who goes into the pearl business with his father in Pa Paz, California. Nettled by the boasts of an employee, a pearl diver, he believes if he can find a pearl of gigantic proportions, he will be a man. In his father's absence, Ramon abandons his responsibilities, and convinces an Indian man who has sold them pearls to teach him to dive for them. He learns to search for pearls, but the Indian warns him away from a certain cave, where he believes the Manta Diabla resides. He tells Ramon that the pearls in that cave are the Manta Diabla's, and if anyone takes them, the Manta will pursue him until the pearl is returned. The Manta has spies all around who report to him the happenings when he is away. Ramon hunts in the cave anyway, believing the tale to be merely an old Indian legend. He finds an enormous black pearl, the size of a grapefruit, which has only a slight flaw, easily removed. The Indian counsels Ramon to return the pearl to the Manta Diabla, but scorning the tale, Ramon takes the pearl home. His father wanted to sell the pearl to one of the other pearl dealers in the town, but they were not willing to give him the sum he required, so he presented it to the virgin Mary image. Trusting in her to protect them after such a fine gift, Ramon's father sailed into the teeth of a violent storm, and his entire fleet was lost, with the exception of the Sevillano, the young man whose boasts had prompted Ramon's pearl discovery. The Indian insists that the storm was brought on by the Manta Diabla who wants his pearl back, and Ramon now believes him. He steals the pearl back with the intent to return it to the manta, but the Sevillano, armed with a knife, comes to steal it from him, intending to make his own fortune. Ramon is compelled at knife point to paddle the boat to the city where the Sevillano will sell the pearl, but the manta follows them, to recover his pearl, as Ramon is convinced. The Sevillano laughs at his fears, and tells him why his father's fleet was lost. The manta does attack them, and the Sevillano harpoons it, and ends accidentally strapped to the manta when he dives his last. Ramon stays in the area for a while to see if the Sevillano, who was known for his long dives, would reappear. When he does not, Ramon returns to the city and gives the pearl back to the Mary image, believing that she has protected him from the Sevillano and the Manta Diabla. He feels content that he has finally become a man.

Editorial Review:

Harvesting the biggest pearl that he and his father have ever seen from an underwater cave where a monster devilfish lurks, sixteen-year-old Ramon can not foresee the trouble that such a fabulous gem can bring. Reprint. Newbery Honor Book. K. AB. SLJ. NYT. H.

Island of the Blue Dolphins

Scott O'Dell

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

great for 4th grader! 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

My son has learning challenges when it comes to reading and comprehension, so I ordered this book on cd for him. It worked wonderfully! Although he followed along in his book, it helped him a lot.

Editorial Review:

In the Pacific there is an island that looks like a big fish sunning itself in the sea.  Around it, blue dolphins swim, otters play, and sea elephants and sea birds abound.  Once, Indians also lived on the island.  And when they left and sailed to the east, one young girl was left behind.



This is the story of Karana, the Indian girl who lived alone for years on the Island of the Blue Dolphins.  Year after year, she watched one season pass into another and waited for a ship to take her away.  But while she waited, she kept herself alive by building a shelter, making weapons, finding food, and fighting her enemies, the wild dogs.  It is not only an unusual adventure of survival, but also a tale of natural beauty and personal discovery.


From the Paperback edition.

The King's Fifth

Scott O'Dell

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

The King's Fifth 3 out of 5 stars.
7 of 11 people found this review helpful.

This critique is for my seventh grade language arts class. The King's Fifth is a unique book. However, on a scale from 1 to 5 I would only give 3 stars, because there's no realy story line. There's also not that much creativity used in this piece of work. For the most part it's grammatically correct and contains great voice through the dialogues. However, it does provide historical information and facts with a historical theme. Although I don't prefer this genre of book, others would. I recommend it to you if you like to read for information or like slower story lines. But, if you are like me and prefer faster action and suspense then you probably wouldn't like this book.
The King's Fifth is about a prisoner who is also a cartographer. He was taken captive by the king's soldiers after returning from a trip to the seven golden cities. He and his fellow voyagers found and secretly kept an amazing treasure, which the king wanted, too. Will he survive, be freed or hung? You'll have to read it to find out.

Editorial Review:

In this deeply affecting novel Scott O'Dell envelops the reader in the
heroic world of the conquistadors—a world that is at once somber
and many-colored. Though they may have been ruthless, these
steel-helmeted young men of Spain lived their lives on the very edge
of eternity with style and uncommon courage.

Sing Down the Moon

Scott O'Dell

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 68 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

The Navaho Trail of Tears 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

One morning, while Navaho fourteen year old Bright Morning and her friend Running Bird are out in the fields of their home, Canyon de Chelly, tending sheep, they see strange men approaching. Before they can stop it, Bright Morning is kidnapped by the men, who turn out to be Spanish Slave-holders, and take her to a South-Western town, dominantly Mexican. She is sold as a slave to a Spanish speaking family, where she meets another slave, who can speak her language. Bright Morning tries desperately to find a way to get back to her people. The other slave imprisoned with her tells her the way, and Bright Morning is able to make a narrow escape back to her people. But when she returns, she finds her village under occupation of the "Long Knives", or American soldiers. After she is forsed into an arranged marriage with another Indian, Tall Boy, the Long Knives push the Navaho out of their land- and onto one of the most memorable events in American history- the Trail of Tears. Many all around her suffer and eventually die as they continue to walk on.
A very well written story, and very informative.

Editorial Review:

The Spanish slavers were an ever present threat to the Navajo way of life. This historical novel is about a young Navajo girl who is kidnapped and enslaved by Spaniards and then rescued by her husband-to-be.

The Hawk That Dare Not Hunt by Day

Scott O'Dell

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Tom Barton and his Uncle Jack live on the edge of danger, smuggling goods under the very nose of the king's searchers. Shrewd, brave, desperate at times, they make run after run across the Channel, braving rough seas, heavy winds, and a growing restlessness among their countrymen. All Europe is aflame with the writing and preaching of Martin Luther.

Tom and his uncle come into contact with another man, William Tyndale, whose work and prayer is to put an English Bible into the hands of the common people. While Uncle Jack sees only the profit in a religious Reformation, it is Tom who sees in Tyndale's work the dawning of a new age and a new way of life for himself and England.

William Tyndale was the hawk that dare not hunt by day. Hunted, hated by many, a fugitive in several countries, this humble man's pen changed the course of history. For modern Christians, he is the symbol of scholarship and courage, determination and meekness. For Tom Barton, he was father and friend, teacher and comforter, and the first true testimony of Christ in a godless age.

Carlota

Scott O'Dell

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

MY REVIEW 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful.

This is a story about a girl who lived in California a long time ago(as in about 1846). She was brought up like a tom-boy in the place of her dead brother, Carlos. This is an exelent story about how Carlota's struggles to become her own person. I'm 12 yrs. old, Iloved this book, and all other's I've read by Scott O'Dell

Editorial Review:

Raised to take the place of her dead brother,  Carlota de Zubaran can do anything that Carlos could  have done. She races her stallion through the  California lowlands, dives into shark-infested waters  searching for gold, and fights in the battles that  rage between the Mexicans and the Americans. At  sixteen, she is fearless--and that pleases her  father very much.



Yet while Carlota  throughly enjoys her freedom, she wants to be more  than her father's "son." She wants to be  herself, brave and courageous but free to show  feelings of tenderness and compassion as well. Her  father thinks such feelings are shameful, so Carlota  must defy him. That will be the most difficult  battle of all.

Thunder Rolling in the Mountains

Scott O'Dell, Elizabeth Hall

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Thunder Rolling in the Mountains 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I think that this book was suspenseful because when a chapter ended it always made you wonder what was going to happen next. I think that kids are age would enjoy reading it because they can relate to everything that is happening in the book, for example people can relate to the lose of a loved one which the girl in the story went through. This book was a page turner because when you finished a chapter and you put the book down you were thinking about what was going to happen next so you just kept reading and reading.

Editorial Review:

It is spring of 1877 when fourteen-year-old Sound of Running Feet, daughter of Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce, sees white people panning gold in the little creek that feeds the Wallowa River, and brings word of them to her father.

"They are the first, but more are on the way," he says. "We are few and they are many. They will devour us."

It is Sound of Running Feet who narrates the story of her tribe's fate. Readers will be gripped as she shares with us her respect for her father, her love for handsome Swan Necklace, and her destiny.

Sarah Bishop (Point)

Scott O'dell

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 66 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

super stinky sucky book 1 out of 5 stars.
9 of 11 people found this review helpful.

Sarah Bishop
By Scott O'Dell
Jamila Colquitt (her daughter age ten)

I had a feeling this would be somewhat a good book because it was by Scott O'Dell, but I was unfortunately wrong. No offence or anything but this was one of the worst books I have ever read. It sounds really interesting but it really isn't only because it has too many characters and I still don't get the ending if she ends up in peace or not.
Sarah Bishop is a 15year old girl, living with her father, and her older brother Chad. They had moved to Long Island, New York Colony, from England, and her mother had died. Her father keeps a picture of King Gorge on the wall and upsets many people and patriots around in that area. Her brother, Chad, with his friend David join the Patriot Army which was against his fathers wishes. One night, some Patriots come and burn down Sarah and her family's farm. Her father was then tortured and feathered and then dies. Sarah gets mad, and then sets out for New York City to find her older brother. After the battle at the Brooklyn Heights, she prays that her brother has not been killed. But she finds out that he hasn't but was taken as a prisoner by the Cruel Hessians. After that she gets a job at tavern for a while, until she has enough money to complete her journey. In New York City she discovers that her brother has been killed in the prison camp he has been in and she gets very upset now knowing that she has no close family to help her keep going.
Unfortunately she is then blamed starting a fire New York City. She did not commit the crime but witnesses say they saw her running with a knife in her hand. Now hearing this she runs away living in the wilderness of Westchester county, and hides from the British there. She lives in a cave and does her daily task. And she is even accused of being a witch by the people in the local town near by. I didn't get the ending if she ends in peace but she did go to court.
I think that I lot of people would probably like this book, but its just not really the kind of book I would like.

Editorial Review:

The tale of a girl's strength and courage during the American Revolution, written by the Newbery Medal-winning author of Island of the Blue Dolphins. "Readers will especially relish Sarah's fierce independence."--School Library Journal.

My Name Is Not Angelica

Scott O'Dell

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

"My Name Is Not Angelica" Erika 4 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

O'Dell,Scott.(1989).My Name Is Not Angelica"
New York:Scholastic, Inc.

This book is about a girl named Raisha. Raisha and her family and friends live in Africa, until one day the white people came and brought them to America to work as slaves. Raisha, her family and her friends were sold at an auction.Luckly her and Konje were sold to the same master and were sent to Van Prok.
When they got to there plantation they saw the huts they were going to live in and saw the work they were going to do. Then Konje planed a plot of running away tomaho bay, he told Raisha that when there was enough food she could come. So Konje left Van Prok.
Then the other owners slaves ran away, and the run away slaves started stealing food and goods from different plantations. So Governer Gardelin had to make up these rulers that were a lot harsher than the old ones.
Raisha would steal some goods for Konje and hide them by a bush and then Konje would pick them up. Raisha is so upset about all the deaths and everything that is going down that she plans to plot to run away her self.
Raisha runs away and on her way these 2 white boys stop her and ask her if shes a slave and what plantation she belongs to. Raisha doesn't answer. Instead she runs as fasts as she can, until she reaches Cinnamon bay were she catches a lot of fish a drys them out for the slaves to eat, she also gets fruit from some fruit trees.
After Raisha collects enough food for the slaves she heads towards Konjes camp of run away slaves. When she gets there she is greeted by Konje with a hug. Raisha gives Konje the food she colected for the slaves.Then Raisha finds out she's pregnant with Konjes Baby. Then Raisha and Konje get married.
Then the Governor brought a lot of soliders to kill the run aways. Konje told everyone not to surrender. The soldiers came and killed a priest, and all the slaves thought that killing themselves would be better than having them selves killed by white people. So the slaves jump off the cliff. Konje takes Raishas hand and she pulls away telling him she doesn't want to kill the baby, Konje told Raisha that they would all be together in heaven, but Raisha still refused. So Konje jump by himself.
Later Raisha and her baby became free.
I think you should read this book because it has everything. Its sad and happy and basicly has every mood. This book is very good, there was never really a dull part in it.
The genre of this book is slavery. I would give tis book a 9 out of 10.

Editorial Review:

Kidnapped from her African home, 16-year-old Raisha begins her new life on the island of St. John as a plantation slave and is soon swept into the great slave rebellion of 1733. "A magnificent tale, superbly told by a grand master of historical fiction."--Publishers Weekly.