Scott O'Dell is one of my all time favorite authors. I have read "Island of the Blue Dolphins" a million times and would read it a million more. It is the story that first drew me to the Native American culture and his other works were equally enticing. The story of Karana's survival alone on the island of her birth and the life and family she makes for herself there is magnificent. Her neverending yearning for her people, but continuing love for the home she makes creates a bittersweet ending when she leaves for her people. It is made even more sad when in his author's notes O'Dell revealed that her people never made it to their new home and that is why they never sent for her. Scot O'Dell writes an alluting tale of a woman who must survive on her own. I would heartily recommend any book he has written.

Elizabeth George Speare is not far behind on my favorite author list. I also read "The Sign of the Beaver" a million times. It is a wonderful story of a wary friendship between a teenage white settler left to care for their new home while his father goes to fetch his mother, sister, and the soon to be born baby and a teenage Indian who has inherited the bitterness of his culture to the white man. Together they teach each other what is needed to know to survive in the other's world. Another bittersweet ending, this is a wonderful story about how two radically different people can learn to respect the other and what they have to offer. "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" is the story about a girl from the Caribbean who is tossed into her own survival story when she must live with her Puritan relatives. Here, her culture of clashes with the rigid structure of the Puritan people who consider her a hopeless sinner. They radically distrust her and it comes to a head when she is accused of witchcraft. The only drawback of this story is that it helps to understand the Puritans and it is my experience that their history is learned in highschool when one is just a tad old for her works.