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Paperback Book Club: Baby Island with Blair Braverman (Patreon)

Published:
2023-10-01 22:15:01
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

"On the night of September twentieth the S.S. Orminta, two weeks outward bound from San Francisco to Australia, was struck by a tropical storm and badly disabled. In the general panic which followed, nobody thought of the two little girls who were traveling alone to meet their father in Australia. But, although nobody remembered her, twelve-year-old Mary Wallace immediately thought of the babies." 

When we asked for new paperback book club suggestions, a handful of listeners mentioned Carol Ryrie Brink's 1937 book Baby Island. What you can't have known is that our survival correspondent, Blair Braverman, loves this book--and now Sarah does too. It's the grittiest outdoor adventure story we've tackled yet.

Links: 

BraverMountain Mushing  

Buy Small Game 

Read "A Sea Story" 

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Comments

Anjali

Yesssss! I was one of the handful who asked for this! And I love every single Blair Braverman episode so this is perfect ❤️

Bridget

I just said WHAT really loud and then inhaled and the dogs came over to make sure I’m alright. HUGE BLER fan over here, aka UglyDog iykyk

Virginia Shea

Omg, I hadn’t thought of that book in decades but I loved it! Iirc, Carol Ryrie Brink wrote a number of excellent children’s books.

Victoria Thompson

Re: Blair's comments at 26:00 about books being edited to remove insensitive comments in the future, a few months back I listened to an audiobook of "The Case-book of Sherlock Holmes" that'd been recorded recently. So there was a nice little intro where the publisher was just like "Hey this book used to contain some racist language and we've done our best to tone it down now that these are in the public domain". Which I thought was a clever workaround that didn't change any of the actual content, and was honestly SUCH a relief for me personally, as a Black lover of Holmes canon—it was great to be able to read these stories without constantly emotionally bracing for them to say something horrible. Really hoping that pub gets around to recording the rest of the canon sometime 🤞🏽

Georgie Lewis

This ep is cracking me up—quite a lot due to the word ‘baby’ making me laugh as well. The alliteration of ‘borrowing babies’ along with the concept, is adorable. Tying them on leaches, like puppies, again cracks me up. Thanks!

sistertotherain9

I remember this one! I think I got it from school. I remember really disliking Mary and really liking Jean--Mary felt like who I was supposed to be, and Jean felt more like a real girl even if she still liked babies (I did not). I especially like her making up songs and writing letters the whole time. I wasn't at all convinced that being stranded on an island with babies would be very fun, because my younger sister and I were often left alone with my much younger sister and brother in our home about 2 miles away from anyone else, but I did like the prospect of no adults coming back very much. My sister also read the book, and we devised a game where she was Mary and I was Jean and our younger siblings were the twins or Ann Elizabeth and the monkey. We had a trampoline, and we'd pretend we were in the lifeboat and had to use the babies to lure sharks to us so we could kill them for food. Whenever one of the dogs would get close and we could catch them and throw or pull them on the trampoline, we'd caught a shark.

JS

What other "Child/young person has an adventure in the wilderness" kind of books did you y'all read growing up? I remember reading "Hatchet" in grade school

Carrie Williams

I got this book at a used bookstore in the 70s, in one of those situations where you could get a paper bag full of books for like $5. Kids’ books were usually 5/$1. I read Baby Island to death and gasped that anyone even remembers it, let alone put it on a podcast.

Annie K

I’m also deeply obsessed with the Atlantic article A Sea Story and have been for years. I was never quite able to articulate why though. There is definitely something there about getting into the granular details of survival and then thinking about what might happen to you. I would almost certainly die! Anyway, as usual I loved the episode.

Leah King

Sarah's aside about the experience of having a religious loved one telling you that they're worried you're going to Hell, and the unfair guilt that puts on you...I'm in this exact situation. It sucks that other people are experiencing it too, but I feel a little less alone. Thank you for talking a little about that, Sarah.

Beth Zyglowicz

This whole book is wild to me, it's a viewpoint that is just so alien to my own interests. I was never interested in dolls or domestic play as a kid and then ended up an actual caretaker of my baby sister at age 11-- which sucked! And I remain aggressively uninterested in babies. I loved survival stories as a kid but throwing the babies in ruins it for me. It just feels like propaganda for how girls belong in the home. 😬

theo russo

As an identical twin I don’t think it matters

Meaghan

On the MC taking the babies without telling their parents and how the parents might die looking for their babies: This sort of happened on Titanic to the Allison family. Both parents died and their older child, the only 1st class child to die in the sinking. It seems unlikely that the parents didn’t know that the nurse had the baby but afterwards the story got spun to be that they didn’t get to the boats in time bc they were looking for the baby. The nurse who immediately took the baby to the lifeboats had the same name of an infamous 1909 British case where a woman murdered her own child by throwing it from a train window and they’ve been conflated to be the same person in some books and even the Titanic miniseries from 1996. The baby is one of those tragic Titanic survivors that later died of something else quite mundane—food poisoning at 18.

Brett A. Snodgrass

Great episode. Never heard of this book. Re: stories where kids build their own world: Andrew Henry’s Meadow by Doris Burn was one of my favorite books as a kid. Beautifully illustrated and told. It took me away.

Katie

This made me realize that I loved The Mandalorian because it resonated with my childhood pretend fantasy adventures with my American Girl doll.

Andy Hinterman

I have twin sons and I can say with confidence that if they were marooned on an island with relative strangers at 2 years old they would've been mistaken for each other a million times! We managed by color coding them and checking for the birth mark behind of their left ears. Now they're 7 and we don't have much trouble - unless they're running around naked (which still happens more often than I expect it would!) it's a real challenge.

Ren

My mom is a twin and when she and her sister were in elementary school, my grandparents MADE them switch classes at school one day. The students all figured it out immediately but it took the teachers much longer. The girls were both very timid children and cried and cried when they got in trouble and the principal or whoever didn’t believe that their parents made them do it. Until my grandmother came to the school and explained that, yes, she and my granddaddy both just thought it would be funny and yes, they did just make their daughters do this thing they didn’t want to do.

Ren

Also, Sarah, you made me cry talking about how some of us have internalized the idea that our existence is doing psychological harm to those we love. Boy, is that the central angst of my life! I can’t tell my family major things about my life because I’m terrified of bringing emotional anguish to the last few decades of my mom’s life because I love her. Thanks for seeing us. And fuck the whole idea of hell. It warps and destroys everything it touches.

Ren

Island of the Blue Dolphins!

Ren

Me too. You’re not the only one.

red

Definitely not sure what the fantasy is for today’s twelve year-olds.. But, as someone who was 12-13 in the early 2010s, I can say that the YA fiction that we seemed to gravitate towards at the time were works like “The Hunger Games” and “Divergent”. Which tells me that the fantasy morphed into “can we imagine a reality that would actually be worse than what we’re enduring right now?” I say that with only a slight amount of sarcasm. If we group in things like Harry Potter, we can start to notice a trend of the fantasy being that we can be the one person who truly makes a difference in the world. Definitely a plight started by millennials that really grew and took shape for early Gen Z.

red

Thanks for this episode ❤️ Definitely fun revisiting the worlds we created as kids, even in our heads with friends. I know one of my and my friends’ favorite games to play we literally referred to as “desert island”!

mary

absolutely adored Small Game and decided it deserved a proper listening setting/vibe listening to Sarah and Blair while sitting on the shore of Lake Michigan was the little gift i needed after several rough days. tysm 🖤✨

Sierra Wilson

The cover with the pink is branded into my brain from the far past, and I can’t wait to listen to this.

AlettaSchuurman

I swear I left my body for a few seconds when I realized that I am ALSO an only child AND MY MOTHER ALSO HAD A POODLE 😂

Dana Anderson

the prettiest baby, I can’t😂♥️ very special episode for those of us who know babies who are obsessed with other smaller babies

Chrissy P

I was really struck by the moment when you talked about the term tomboy - and this idea that basically any woman raised from the mid century onward had this qualifier to describe our nature, when that nature deviated in any way from *insert infinite examples here*. And also! That our literary heroes as girls were tomboys. Anne of Green Gables, Jo March, Scout, etc. Even down to the dolls we played with. I work on a public radio show about American history and democracy and one of my colleagues just did a deep dive into the American Girl experience, and whether those dolls did right by history, and this bonus episode spoke to me, and the conversations the women on our team were having about American Girl, on such an existential level, in the way that sometimes you hear or read something that feels so perfect for the moment you’re in. So THANK YOU.

Erica Boisvert

So I had heard about this book but I never read it. I feel like this book walked so the Baby-Sitter's Club could run. Thanks for another great bonus episode. Blair is delightful, and Sarah, you're, as always, my best friend in my head. :)

Toni Travis

I haven't read this book, but this was such a joy to listen to. And since I can't leave comments on Spotify, this is my chance to mention how much I love the other episodes you've done with Blair--I don't like survival stories *at all* and was really anxious about listening to those episodes, but your conversations are worth it every time, and I learn a lot :)

Freddy Ray

Loved this episode! Blair is a delight as usual. Also! Since that poll went up about the book club, I have received and read a used copy of Behind The Attic Wall. I cried a whole bunch rereading it, and it was the first book I have finished since the start of the pandemic!!! Thank you!

Pax

I’m an identical triplet. Asked my Mom one day if they every mixed us up and didn’t catch it so we probably aren’t who we think we are and she said “Oh yeah. Definitely”. But in their defense I didn’t know who I was either. As part of early intervention my parents had to sit me in front of a mirror and teach me how to recognize myself because I thought my reflection was one of my triplets. I would say by age 3 I was able to tell them confidently who I was if they messed up (and I’m the best at being me so it worked out)

Francesca S.

I am older sister to identical twins, ~2.5 years younger than me. They are extremely prickly about being mixed up/being called the wrong name. Absolutely wrecks them, invalidates their individualism, makes them feel like the speaker doesn't care about who they are. My parents are pretty strict and old-fashioned, so they never got to use their twin-ness for fun pranks or anything, and I think that made it worse, because their ability to be perceived as interchangeable was only negative, never used for their own benefit. They are 27 now, and they still wince whenever someone mixes them up, my entire extended family does. My dad often accidentally calls them each by the wrong name. He can tell the difference of course, but he still says the wrong thing, and I think it's really wounded their relationships with him. My Mom and I (and my late grandma, d. 2022) are the minority who have rarely called them the wrong names/mixed them up. Out of the blue, one of the twins got lasik recently--she had never before mentioned disliking glasses, which all three of us wear--and initially told me that lately the inconvenience of always needing them at hand bothered her. Right before we hung up, she brightly told me that people will have a much harder time mixing them up, now that she will not be wearing glasses. Obviously I'm speculating a bit, but even if that wasn't an intentional motivation, the fact that she mentioned it at all makes me a little sad. Wow, I have lots of thoughts on this! But I will leave this comment here. Thanks for a great episode.

Liz Gotauco, the Cosbrarian

If you'd like to visit some fantastic youth and YA survival lit featuring girls, my favorites are The Canyon's Edge by Dusti Bowling and I Am Still Alive by Kate Alice Marshall. Shoutouts to Disaster Days by Rebecca Behrens, Alone by Megan E. Freeman, and Echo Mountain by Lauren Wolk.

Liz Gotauco, the Cosbrarian

I would be SO MAD if I went to an island to get away from children, and not only did they find me, with BABIES, but they tried to convert me.

Kate W

I was obsessed with this book as a little kid. My mom had loved it, too.

Julia Petrich

Random and a little off topic but the conversation about suffering and discomfort had me thinking about the quote “pain is inevitable; suffering is optional.” I find that a comforting reminder most of the time.

Wendy B

I loved loved loved Andrew Henry’s meadow as a kid! My mother gave my copy away at one point (gasp!) but I managed to track down another. I’ve always thought it would make a fun movie.

Wendy B

This book sounds bonkers. I am surprised I’ve never read it or even heard of it as I feel like I read a lot of older children’s books when I was a kid (in the 80s). I’m trying to decide if I want to read it now.

Lindsey Broad

YWA has always felt so Jewish to me without being Jewish (the Jason Biggs of podcasts) so I really appreciate Blair finally bringing it into the show.

Brett A. Snodgrass

I agree, it would make a sweet film. Zach Braff optioned it for a film many years ago. There was a treatment for it online for awhile (not sure if it’s still around). I wasn’t fond of his take though. It included an evil developer and a bunch of unnecessary added conflict.

Rachael

A Scholastic paperback from 1968 called Two On An Island about this brother and sister who get stranded on an island. And also a book called The Village That Slept, translated from French? I think? About a boy and girl that survive a plane crash in the French alps and find a baby that survived the same crash. They try to live in an old abandoned mountain village.

Mary Murray

This was so fun! I love hearing two of my favorite people chat about survival and writing and life. ❤️

Moth

For what it's worth, I read an article that talked about how our brains keep the names of people we love in the same mental "file cabinet," which is why parents often call their kids by the wrong name. It's an indication of love. Usually different categories are enough to limit the cross-naming, which is why, for example, my parents called my brothers by each others' names, but not me (because "girl" was a separate category), and parents don't usually call their spouse by their kids' names or vice versa. I bet your dad has "twins" as a mental category so he'll call them by the wrong name but won't call you by their names. (I thought I had outsmarted this particular issue by only having one child, but then we got a kitten and I have absolutely called the kitten by my daughter's name more than once. So far I haven't called the kid by the kitten's name, but I'm sure it's just a matter of time.)

Tobu

I'll have you know I got this book from the library and read it so I could enjoy this episode properly, and it was a very fun ride. The wildest and worst thing about it to me, personally, was the girls being afraid that "savitches" might be living on the island. Can you imagine being cast away with four hungry babies, and having been taught to hope that there will NOT be a village full of other human beings nearby, presumably with maternal figures and a stable food supply? Because this would be somehow just as dangerous as a bunch of predatory animals? What has racism wrought here, I ask you.

Madeline Whisler

Can you please do an episode on Judy Garland/Liza Minelli??

Nicole Gallucci

I have a 15 month old. My sister also has a 15 month old and I just found out they are visiting for the day on Sunday. Baby. Island.

ES

Oh come on. The music plays over Sarah’s intro??? I really don’t understand why the sound mixing is so uneven!

MHW

Turkey and monkey are also funny words to me.

MHW

Oh my God! I read this book as a kid, when I would read anything! I have thought about it now and then since, and had no idea what the title was anymore, and also I don't think I knew how old it was. Oh, and I loved Caddie Woodlawn (in fairness I haven't read it in 40 years--we used to spend summers in a cabin in northern Minnesota and I so remember reading that).

Jesse Walker-McGraw

I loved this book as a kid! I remember how when one of the babies ate sand, the girls said, "pit it out!" And my parents and I still say that to pets if they eat something they're not supposed to

theo russo

As an identical twin people always ask me what if you were ur brother and ur names were switched and at the end of the day I’ve always said I don’t care

Kate Walz

“Heaven can be this moment”

Jackie

Whoa. Been a long time fan of YWA, and also have been obsessed with Estonian history for over a decade. The topics you cover usually don't intertwine with that so it was wild to hear you mention the MS Estonia seemingly out of nowhere! Thanks for linking the article!

Kimmy

Love the show, love the episode! And I think I want to show off my critical thinking skills that you've done so much to develop, and say the idea that girls have to either be enticed by adventure to read about babies, or else enticed by babies to read about adventure, is a false dichotomy. And I've been surprised and delighted to see the kids in my life saying "why not both" to frilly, tulled dresses and muddy outdoor adventures! (I think the secret is adding Oxyclean powder to the laundry, but also the synthetic fibers just don't stain as much!)

Eli Doyon

"I was making your mom scream this morning" was perfect, Sarah. Also, imo, proselytizing is basically low-pressure cult conversion. They're like someone who just got into astrology but doesn't understand all the mechanics, but insists paying attention to the signs is crucial.

Christie CZ

My favorite holiday tradition is spending time with Sarah and Blair. My family recreates outdoors for the winter holiday and we listen to at least one episode while we drive. This year was Baby Island, which was delightful (especially from the future - would love Blair’s updated thoughts on twins! 😂.) Last year was the team in the Andes, which may seem like an odd choice to seek tidings of comfort and joy but that is exactly what we find in the tales and surrounding conversations. It’s a cushy couch and a warm fire on the I-95. Thanks for all the stories and the unseen admin it takes to share them with us.

Beez

I LOVED this book! I gasped when I saw the book cover for the episode.

zoë hessian

i want to have a kitchen set with slabs of rock and shells :(

Jil Clearman

Just listened to the Auralyn episode and it's great but all the talk of bone-deep sores and eating turtle blood jello was a bit intense so now I'm here re-listening to the coziest of survival stories to calm down 😌