ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHINS by Scott O'Dell

This book is a Newberry Award winning classic and also the winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Medal.
Published in 1960 and the story is set on an island in the Pacific and is based on fact, that in the early 1800's, an Indian girl spent 18 years alone on a rocky island off the coast of California.
The lived alone on the island from 1835 to 1853 and is known to history as The Lost Woman of San Nicolas. San Nicolas is about 75 miles SW of Los Angeles.
For some years, historians thought thatit had been settled some 6 centuries ago, but carbon-14 tests of excavations on the Island show that Indians came here from the North, long before the Christian era.
The girl in the story is called Karana, who was left behind. This occurred when a ship came to the Island to evacuate the people and when Karana realised her brother had not boarded the shop with the tribe, she made the decision to dive overboard and swim back to the island. Because of the stormy weather that was prevalent at that time, the ship had to depart and the youngsters were left behind.
And all because the brother Ramo, had not obeyed instructions, and gone back to the village to get his spear.
The brother Ramo dies, after being attacked by a pack of wild dogs and Karana is left alone to fend for herself.
A very moving story.
This was a book from my list for A DARING BOOK CHALLENGE.