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Born writer12/31/2023 ![]() The author's deep convictions shone in his works. "The attraction was instant and mutual."* He was deeply grateful for their support and always enjoyed attending ALA in June when he could." He and his wife met while he was speaking to students at a school in her small California town. Hall, herself a public librarian for some years, said, "Scott believed that his success in the field of children's literature was primarily due to the librarians of this country and to their bestowal of the Newbery Medal on Island of the Blue Dolphins, as well as their selection of 3 other books for Newbery Honor books ( The King's Fifth, The Black Pearl, Sing Down the Moon). O'Dell went on to write more than 25 children's books, several with the help of his wife, Elizabeth Hall. Some mornings, in sun or rain, we searched for devilfish among the sea-washed rocks off Dead Man's Island."* We returned hours later, having circumnavigated the watery world. Paddling with our hands, we set to sea-to the breakwater and even to Portuguese Bend. We freed them from the deep-water slips where they waited for the sawmill. But to each of us young Magellans, they were proud canoes, dugouts fashioned by ax and fire, graceful, fierce-prowed - equal to any storm. They were twelve feet long or longer, rough with splinters, and covered with tar. From the forests of Oregon, the logs had been towed into the harbor in great rafts. One day we left the landlocked world and went to sea, each of us on separate logs. "Island of the Blue Dolphins, though it is based upon the true story of a girl who lived alone on a California island for eighteen years, came from the memory of my years at San Pedro and Dead Man's Island, when, with other boys my age, I voyaged out on summer mornings in search of adventure. ![]() Its quiet words are perfectly in tune with the ocean, beach, and sky that make up its setting Odell Scott, who later became known as Scott O'Dell, said the story came from his memories of growing up on the coast: ![]() Scott O'Dell is most famous for his first children's book, Island of the Blue Dolphins. He loved the outdoors and decided to become a writer as a youngster after he learned that he was related to the classic British historical novelist and poet, Sir Walter Scott. His family lived in a house on stilts that was so much a part of the landscape that the waves at high tide splashed against its supports. People got around by walking, taking a trolley or train, or riding horseback. No freeways, no asphalt, no hundred-story buildings. Odell Scott (Scott O'Dell) grew up in a California that was still wild and natural.
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