The Cay
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
Where The Cay keeps showing up
One of our editors' lists features this novel.
What you might want to know about The Cay
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Eleven-year-old Phillip is fleeing Curacao with his mother in 1942 when their ship is torpedoed. He wakes up on a raft with an old West Indian sailor named Timothy, blinded by a head injury, on a small island.
Yes. The Cay won numerous awards including the Jane Addams Children's Book Award in 1971. The novel has been continuously in print since publication and remains widely taught in middle schools.
Yes. The Cay has been challenged in some American schools, primarily for its handling of race, including dialect and racial slurs. It remains widely taught in classrooms studying World War II and racial prejudice.
The Cay was written by Theodore Taylor, published in 1969 by Laurel Leaf.
The Cay is 144 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Cay takes most readers 2 to 3 hours to finish.
The Cay is a standalone novel by Theodore Taylor, not part of a series.
The Cay is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
