This was one of my favorite books as a young girl. Scott O'Dell, in general, is a very good author, and this was my favorite book of his. It's historical fiction at its best.
Interesting adventure book. Girls would especially like this.
Compared to books like Island of the Blue Dolphins, this is a weak novel. It is somewhat interesting, and it intrigues a lot of curiousity about the time period and the Jamestown colonies that I would like to further research. But the characters are not engaging - the main character, Serena Lynn, forms deep attachment to people but her motivation from whence the attachments spring are never clearly explained. She just suddenly bonds!
I think that more depth was required of everyone in the novel - the vast majority of the people were names and descriptions tossed in to say a few words before being pitched into the background. If we are greeting Jamestown and the New World through Serena Lynn's eyes, she certainly wasn't very observant, and missed much that we would have very much liked to see.
I think that more depth was required of everyone in the novel - the vast majority of the people were names and descriptions tossed in to say a few words before being pitched into the background. If we are greeting Jamestown and the New World through Serena Lynn's eyes, she certainly wasn't very observant, and missed much that we would have very much liked to see.
