The Cay
Readers rate it 3.6 (48 on Hardcover)
144 pages · Released Apr 8, 2003 · Laurel Leaf
Content report card
The Cay parent’s guide: what’s inside
Sexual content
LGBTQ+ themes
Substance use
What it offers
A note for parents
The Cay is a classic survival story set during WWII that powerfully addresses racial prejudice through the relationship between a young blind boy and an elderly Black man stranded on an island together. While the shipwreck and subsequent survival involve some tension and peril, the core message celebrates human connection and compassion across racial lines. The book contains some dialect and period-appropriate language that reflects the characters' backgrounds, but is otherwise appropriate for upper-elementary and middle-grade readers.
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From the publisher
Book Description: Read Theodore Taylor’s classic bestseller and Lewis Carroll Shelf Award winner The Cay. Phillip is excited when the Germans invade the small island of Curaçao. War has always been a game to him, and he’s eager to glimpse it firsthand–until the freighter he and his mother are traveling to the Un... Book Description: Read Theodore Taylor’s classic bestseller and Lewis Carroll Shelf Award winner The Cay. Phillip is excited when the Germans invade the small island of Curaçao. War has always been a game to him, and he’s eager to glimpse it firsthand–until 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 mother’s warning about black people: “They are different, and they live differently.” But by the time the castaways arrive on a small island, Phillip’s head injury has made him blind and dependent on Timothy. “Mr. Taylor has provided an exciting story…The idea that all humanity would benefit from this special form of color blindness permeates the whole book…The 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 revelation…At once barbed and tender, tense and fragile—as Timothy would say, ‘outrageous good.’”—Kirkus Reviews * “Fully realized setting…artful, unobtrusive use of dialect…the representation of a hauntingly deep love, the poignancy of which is rarely achieved in children’s 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 Children’s Book to Remember · A Child Study Association’s Pick of Children’s 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
Shelved under
- Survival after airplane accidents, shipwrecks
- Blacks
- Survival
- Prejudices
- Fiction
- Juvenile fiction
- Adventure stories
- Friendship
- Shipwrecks
- Blind
- Survival (after airplane accidents, shipwrecks, etc.)
- Shipwreck survival
Books in The Cay
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ISBN 9780440229124 · Laurel Leaf