The Cay

• Genre: Fiction; middle grade adventure
• Originally Published: 1969
• Reading Level/Interest: Lexile 860L; grades 6-8
• Structure/Length: 19 chapters; approximately 156 pages; approximately 3 hours on audio
• Protagonist and Central Conflict: When his boat is torpedoed by Germans, 11-year-old Phillip Enright is suddenly adrift in the Atlantic Ocean. An injury to his head causes blindness after Phillip’s raft reaches a deserted cay, and he must rely on his only human companion, a man from the West Indies named Timothy, for care and survival.
• Potential Sensitivity Issues: Racism; prejudice; death; wartime violence

Theodore Taylor, Author

Bio: Born 1921; died 2006; born and raised in North Carolina; became a reporter after covering high school sports in his teens; served in the US Merchant Marine and as a Navy officer in World War II; also served in the Korean War; worked in the film industry as a story editor and associate producer before becoming a successful novelist; writer of fiction and non-fiction, short stories, screenplays, and poetry with over 50 published titles for young readers and adults

Other Works: The Weirdo (1992); Timothy of the Cay (1993); The Bomb (1995); The Flight of Jesse Leroy Brown (1998)

Awards: Lewis Carroll Shelf Award (1970)

CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Guide: