Zia

For my first award winning (non-ALA) book I read "Zia" by Scott O'Dell. This book won the Hans Christian Anderson Award. The book is a sequel to "Island of the Blue Dolphins." The book is historical fiction and follows the main character Zia after her people have been taken from their home island off the coast of California and moved to a Christian mission in California. The book also tells the story of a Native American woman named Karana narrated by her 14 year-old niece Zia. Zia and her brother Mando go to look for their Aunt after she was left on her own on an uninhabited island in order to rescue her and potentially take her back to the mission. Zia and her brother find a boat washed up on the shore and get permission to keep it and use it to rescue their aunt.  During the attempt to rescue their Aunt Zia is imprisoned and questioned thoroughly while Father Vincent a friend from the mission goes out to look for Karana. When they return a new Father is placed in charge and treats the people very poorly after which Karana leaves and eventually dies from what Zia believes to be "homesickness." I really enjoyed this book and thought it gave a very personal feeling account of ones way of life being threatened. I also really enjoyed the way this book was written. O'Dell's word use is very articulate and precise and I liked the fact that throughout the book he includes a good amount of Spanish which is something that I haven't really seen before. I thought the story was very interesting and it was, in my opinion, a good representation of how people have in a sense been forced to assimilate into "white culture." Overall I would definitely recommend this as a good read for any age. Its a very easy read an stays interesting throughout. It starts out at a pretty good pace and is concise and doesn't drag on like a lot of other books of this type that I have read.