"Like silent, hungry sharks that swim in the darkness of the sea, the German submarines arrived in the middle of the night."
So begins The Cay, a 137-paged novel by one Theodore Taylor. Eleven-year-old Phillip is fascinated by the war that has engulfed the world, and now that word has come in that the Germans are approaching the island of Curaçao, where he lives, he's ecstatic. Maybe he'll be able to catch a glimpse of the guns or a torpedo! Phillip's mother, however, doesn't see the situation in the same light. She books them passage aboard the next ship out of Curaçao, hoping to escape before the first shots are fired--but when an enemy vessel torpedoes the ship out of the water and the two are separated, Phillip loses more than his mother. He loses his sight.
The Cay is a fascinating little story about overcoming the racial barrier. Phillip's mother is wary of the black men who work on the boats in the harbor, with whom her son occasionally plays "pirates and Dutchmen". "They are different," she tells him, "and they live differently." So it's with great irony that Phillip wakes up after the attack to find himself on a raft, surrounded by seawater and accompanied only by a cat and an old black man. While the narrative concentrate on Thomas himself, the old man is a force of nature all of his own and proves, over the course of the story, just how little true friendship relies on race.
The characters in this story are brilliant. I have to admit that I didn't like Phillip at first--he's a spoiled kid living with his parents on an island in the Carribean, and that makes him slightly irritating. For one thing, he disobeys his mother when she tries to keep him safely away from the shoreline; for another, he insists on drinking more than his fair share of water during his first few days as a castaway. But Phillip undergoes some serious development in these hundred-some pages, and by the last chapter he had become someone I could relate to and sympathize with.
Phillip isn't the only one who develops as a character during the story. Thomas, the white-haired old man who finds himself stuck on a raft with him, also changes. In the beginning he's a stereotypical 1942 black sailor, all thick accent and rough mannerisms, but midway through the book it's impossible to see him as such. Thomas is a truly kindhearted soul who cares for Phillip more than the boy could ever know, and it shows in his actions: the way he makes a rope to guide Phillip around once they make camp on a sandy little cay, teaches him to fish, and stays quiet when his charge complains or gets upset because can't Thomas ever remember that he's blind?
Taylor really sets the scene with his simple, yet vibrant, imagery. He makes a point to use vivid visual descriptions at the beginning of the story, gradually shifting to rely more and more on the other senses as Phillip learns to live without his sight. He also describes Phillip's blindness in such a way that it feels real. Readers may find that they can visualize the cay without actually knowing what the various plants and trees look like. When visual description is needed, Thomas steps in with kindly observations about the birds or the shade of the sea.
This is a book set in the 1940's, in the Carribean. Readers should note that black/African-American men are referred to as "Negroes", but this isn't derrogatory. It's simply a description. The only violence between characters is a slap across the face, while the rest comes from a terrible storm that tears across the cay partway through the book. Characters are clean-mouthed, although readers may encounter difficulty in deciphering Thomas' heavily accented dialogue.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in a short read about friendship, survival, and one boy's extraordinary shift from racism to acceptance. With its straightforward plot and complex characters, Theodore Taylor's The Cay is perfect for kids and older readers alike. The worldbuilding and dialogue in this book are also fantastic. Altogether, these are only some of the many reasons I apply to this book five stars.
The characters in this story are brilliant. I have to admit that I didn't like Phillip at first--he's a spoiled kid living with his parents on an island in the Carribean, and that makes him slightly irritating. For one thing, he disobeys his mother when she tries to keep him safely away from the shoreline; for another, he insists on drinking more than his fair share of water during his first few days as a castaway. But Phillip undergoes some serious development in these hundred-some pages, and by the last chapter he had become someone I could relate to and sympathize with.
Phillip isn't the only one who develops as a character during the story. Thomas, the white-haired old man who finds himself stuck on a raft with him, also changes. In the beginning he's a stereotypical 1942 black sailor, all thick accent and rough mannerisms, but midway through the book it's impossible to see him as such. Thomas is a truly kindhearted soul who cares for Phillip more than the boy could ever know, and it shows in his actions: the way he makes a rope to guide Phillip around once they make camp on a sandy little cay, teaches him to fish, and stays quiet when his charge complains or gets upset because can't Thomas ever remember that he's blind?
Taylor really sets the scene with his simple, yet vibrant, imagery. He makes a point to use vivid visual descriptions at the beginning of the story, gradually shifting to rely more and more on the other senses as Phillip learns to live without his sight. He also describes Phillip's blindness in such a way that it feels real. Readers may find that they can visualize the cay without actually knowing what the various plants and trees look like. When visual description is needed, Thomas steps in with kindly observations about the birds or the shade of the sea.
This is a book set in the 1940's, in the Carribean. Readers should note that black/African-American men are referred to as "Negroes", but this isn't derrogatory. It's simply a description. The only violence between characters is a slap across the face, while the rest comes from a terrible storm that tears across the cay partway through the book. Characters are clean-mouthed, although readers may encounter difficulty in deciphering Thomas' heavily accented dialogue.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in a short read about friendship, survival, and one boy's extraordinary shift from racism to acceptance. With its straightforward plot and complex characters, Theodore Taylor's The Cay is perfect for kids and older readers alike. The worldbuilding and dialogue in this book are also fantastic. Altogether, these are only some of the many reasons I apply to this book five stars.
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