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Fourteen-year-old Zia has known for years about her aunt Karana, who was once left behind and has been living alone out on the Island of the Blue Dolphins. Zia is determined to go out and find her aunt and bring her back to live with other Indians in Zia by author Scott O'Dell.

Because I just revisited Island of the Blue Dolphins and only learned a few days ago of this novel following it, I was curious to find out what the story of Karana's niece is all about. However, I think it was only the glimpse into an unjust part of history that kept me interested in this second book: the depiction of people being forced to live and work at Christian missions as if for the sake of their souls.

I can appreciate an understated writing style, but I'm finding that a plot itself really has to engross me (like in Sing Down the Moon) in order for this particular author's style not to be dull to me. Some parts of this story that got my attention came to anticlimactic ends, and it often felt like the plot didn't really have anywhere it needed to go. Although the children's classic that precedes this book isn't a personal favorite of mine, I do have respect for the heroine Karana, and though her appearance in this book is relatively brief, I suspect that a lot of people who love her story in the earlier book will find her role in this one to be a regretful, unsatisfying, and likely unnecessary addendum.

I don't know if I'll try this author again in the future, but I'm not sorry I indulged my curiosity about this sequel. ( )

The sequel to Island of the Blue Dolphins. When 14-year-old Zia and her brother, Mando, find a boat cast up on the beach near the Santa Barbara mission, they are determined to make the voyage out to the far island - the Island of the Blue Dolphins - where Karana, their aunt, had been left nearly 18 years before, and rescue her.

Sequel to O’Dell’s Newbery Award winner, Island of the Blue Dolphins. Zia lives at the Mission Santa Barbara with her younger brother, Mando. They traveled to the mission after their mother and father had died. Zia has long heard stories about her Aunt Zarana who was left behind on the Island of the Blue Dolphins, her tribe’s ancestral home. Now she hopes to sail to the island and bring her Aunt back to live with them at the Mission.

This was not so compelling a story as IotBD, but I still thought it was a good middle-grade book. Zia is a strong heroine – intelligent, resourceful, morally upright, true to herself, loyal and brave. I also liked the social history lesson O’Dell imparts, showing how the Spaniards, “gringos,” Mexicans and Catholic missionaries fought over control of the people and lands of California, without regard to the native population and their culture.

I do have to comment on the cover of the edition I read. The young woman depicted is hardly recognizable as a Native American. Yet one more thing "stolen" from the natives - their very likeness.
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Zia lives at the Mission, and wonders how her aunt is faring on the Island of the Blue Dolphins. It has been eighteen years since Karana was left behind, marooned on the island, and so Zia tries to find a way to visit her aunt on an island 60 miles away, surrounded by the Pacific Ocean.

While not as good as the original book, I did like Zia, and thought that the interactions amongst the priests, soldiers, and natives were handled well, not over-the-top, but not sugar-coated either. The author did convey how people treated each other almost 200 years ago. Worth reading. ( )