The Cay

For fans of Hatchet and Island of the Blue Dolphins comes Theodore Taylors classic bestseller and Lewis Carroll Shelf Award winner, The Cay. Phillip is excited when the Germans invade the small island of Curaao. War has always been a game to him, and hes eager to glimpse it firsthanduntil the freighter he and his mother are traveling to the United States on is torpedoed. When Phillip comes to, he is on a small raft in the middle of the sea. Besides Stew Cat, his only companion is an old West Indian, Timothy. Phillip remembers his mothers warning about black people: They are different, and they live differently. But by the time the castaways arrive on a small island, Phillips head injury has made him blind and dependent on Timothy. Mr. Taylor has provided an exciting storyThe idea that all humanity would benefit from this special form of color blindness permeates the whole bookThe result is a story with a high ethical purpose but no sermon.New York Times Book Review A taut tightly compressed story of endurance and revelationAt once barbed and tender, tense and fragileas Timothy would say, outrageous good.Kirkus Reviews * Fully realized settingartful, unobtrusive use of dialectthe representation of a hauntingly deep love, the poignancy of which is rarely achieved in childrens literature.School Library Journal, Starred Starkly dramatic, believable and compelling.Saturday Review A tense and moving experience in reading.Publishers Weekly Eloquently underscores the intrinsic brotherhood of man.Booklist "This is one of the best survival stories since Robinson Crusoe."The Washington Star A New York Times Best Book of the Year A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year A Horn Book Honor Book An American Library Association Notable Book A Publishers Weekly Childrens Book to Remember A Child Study Associations Pick of Childrens Books of the Year Jane Addams Book Award Lewis Carroll Shelf Award Commonwealth Club of California: Literature Award Southern California Council on Literature for Children and Young People Award Woodward School Annual Book Award Friends of the Library Award, University of California at Irvine