winning book "Island of the  Blue Dolphins" by Scott ODell (I) (qv). The book is based on the  true story of a woman left behind on the Channel Islands by  missionaries in the early 1800s. She lived alone on the one of the  islands for 18 years and died of dysentery seven weeks after she was  "rescued" and brought to the mainland. She is buried in the  graveyard of the Santa Barbara Mission in California.