This book was written especially for our children: Michael, Ronald and Maureen, and for our grand children, to know a little bit about the good old days. David and I are over 80 years old now. The stories in this book are the way we remember them. Little did we ever think in our wildest dream, sitting by a wood stove with kerosene light and three children out on an island in Minnesota for 17 years, that we would retire in Arizona with all these luxuries. God has been good to us. Enjoy the stories as you read them! Evelyn McKeever

Far off the coast of California looms a harsh rock known as the island of San Nicholas. Dolphins flash in the blue waters around it, sea otter play in the vast kep beds, and sea elephants loll on the stony beaches. Here, in the early 1800s, according to history, an Indian girl spent eighteen years alone, and this beautifully written novel is her story. It is a romantic adventure filled with drama and heartache, for not only was mere subsistence on so desolate a spot a near miracle, but Karana had to contend with the ferocious pack of wild dogs that had killed her younger brother, constantly guard against the Aleutian sea otter hunters, and maintain a precarious food supply. More than this, it is an adventure of the spirit that will haunt the reader long after the book has been put down. Karana's quiet courage, her Indian self-reliance and acceptance of fate, transform what to many would have been a devastating ordeal into an uplifting experience. From loneliness and terror come strength and serenity in this Newbery Medal-winning classic.