I have to say I loved the book, Island of the Blue Dolphin so when I saw this book, I had to read it as this is the sequel. This sequel, Zia centers around the characters Zia and her brother Mando who live in a mission ran by some Fathers around the area of Santa Cruz. Zia went there in the hopes of finding her aunt Karana, who is on the Island of the Blue Dolphins with the hopes of rescuing her and bringing her back to her family. Zia feels that this would be the best thing for her aunt, Karana. The book moves rather quickly which is good because not a lot of exciting drama occurs in the book to keep my attention and I can tell that this book is aimed at a younger target audience. Sure, things happen to Zia but the drama is not there to keep the excitement going, they just occur. Mando and Zia do end up in a small boat in an attempt to go the island to rescue her aunt on their own and find themselves on a whaling ship as “captives”. I don’t see them as captives myself; perhaps they are workers aboard the ship, Indian workers which are earning their keep. After their adventure there, they end up back at the mission where Zia is reunited with her aunt (who got there by other means) but I think her aunt is not what Zia anticipated. I wished the book would have spent more time here and dealt more with what was going on within the characters but again, I think because of the target audience the subject matter is lightly dealt with. A very light read- nothing too exciting, it could really be expanded upon and would make a good starting point for further discussions. No sex, violence, or anything over the top……pretty neutral read.
