Customer Reviews

The Cay

5 star:		(326)
4 star:		(188)
3 star:		(63)
2 star:		(28)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

CHARACTERS: Phillip Enright, 11, American citizen living with his parents on Curacao; Timothy, an elderly black West Indian deckhand; and Stew Cat, a tomcat shipwrecked along with them.

SUMMARY: In February 1942 the Germans attack an oil refinery on Aruba, neighboring island of Curacao, Dutch island off the Venezuelan coast. Young Phillip is living in Willemstad, Curacao, with his parents, but after the attack his mother wants to return to America. Phillip and Father are against the plan, but eventually Mother gets her way.

Just days out to sea, the Germans torpedo the Dutch freighter Phillip and his mother have boarded to flee Curacao. The ship breaks up and sinks; mother and son are separated. Mrs. Enright's fate is unknown, but Phillip is hauled onto a lifeboat by a very old black West Indian who'd been a crewmember on board the "Hato." The only other occupant of the lifeboat is an old cat named Stew Cat; the three are adrift on the open sea for days with only a keg of water, some matches and a few crackers.

Phillip was struck on the head when the "Hato" was sunk, and he has a splitting headache and concussion. After two days on the raft with Timothy and Stew Cat, he goes completely blind. On the third day at sea a plane flies overhead and Timothy signals for help with a torch, but they are not seen.

Timothy, Phillip and the cat make it to a small island that the old Negro, an old sea-hand, figures must be in the Devil's Mouth. Phillips initial reaction to Timothy is one of revulsion; he finds the big black man ugly and frightening. His mother's prejudice against blacks is a factor in his attitude, but Phillip eventually overcomes it and they truly become friends.

When they first land on the island, Phillip feigns helplessness, refusing all labor. Timothy encourages the boy and teaches him to make things they'll need. When the boy gathers the courage to climb a coconut palm, he stops feeling sorry for himself and decides to do as much as he can. He is no longer a helpless blind boy. Timothy begins teaching Phillip survival skills--without telling the boy that he is preparing him for survival on the island after the old man dies.

In July with a terrible hurricane brewing, Timothy makes preparations for it, including lashing their water tank, matches and knife high on the trunk of a palm tree. They survive the first part of the storm and rest while the hurricane's eye is over them. Then they again lash themselves to the tree again to wait out the storm. After the hurricane, Phillip finds that Timothy has borne the brunt of the storm to protect him; the big West Indian's back is flayed open by sand and things driven by the high winds, and Phillip can't stop Timothy's bleeding. The old man dies. Stew Cat, who was missing after the fierce storm, reappears.

Initially the boy feels anger in response to the man's death, but gradually realizes how much Timothy did to prepare him for life alone. In addition to teaching Phillip to get around the cay without assistance, Timothy left a dozen fishing poles lashed to another palm trunk and had taught Phillip as much as he himself knew about survival.

Phillip has to bury Timothy, construct a new hut, prepare another signal fire on the beach and a "HELP" message of stones, build a new rainwater catchment, clean the camp of debris, restart his campfire, and search for anything useful the hurricane might have deposited on the cay. At first the amount of work to be done seems overwhelming, but Phillip approaches the situation calmly, rationally, and with intensity.

Phillip's first signal fire goes unnoticed, so he determines something oily will make a black smoke visible from a distance. On August 20, 1942 what he thinks is thunder is really a destroyer, so he throws oily sea grape leaves on the signal fire, which emits black smoke visible to rescuers.

The deeply-suntanned boy could've been mistaken for a native fisherman, but the captain of an American destroyer hunting German submarines has the boy and Stew Cat picked up. The captain can't believe Phillip could've drifted so far from where the "Hato" was sunk, and he's most astonished to have found a naked blind boy and a cat on a deserted island in the Caribbean.

Phillip's put ashore in Panama for medical treatment and his parents are flown in from Curacao. They can't absorb all that their son has to tell them of his time on the cay. Four months after his rescue Phillip has three surgeries to restore his eyesight. The following April, a year after the shipwreck, he returns to Willemstad with his parents.

IMPRESSIONS: Beyond the obvious but meaningful theme of overcoming racial prejudices, this is a powerful story about growing up, becoming independent despite physical disability, and about strength and self-reliance beyond the levels required of most human beings--let alone a child. "THE CAY" is a most interesting, believable and memorable book. I'm glad to have read it.

The Cay tells the story of a boy named Phillip and his unsuspecting friendship with a black man, Timothy. The war and the German submarines have come to Phillip's part of the Caribbean, and Phillip's mother fears for their safety. Phillip's dad must stay behind for his job, but Phillip and his mother board a ship that will take them back to Virginia where they originally lived. Two days after being on the ship, the ship is torpedoed and during the evacuation, Phillip is separated from his mother. Phillip awakens to find himself on a raft with Timothy and a cat named Stew Cat. The three castaways finally reach a small cay where they must learn to live off the land in order to survive while they hope to be rescued. There are many conflicts in this book that the main characters must overcome. This book is not only a great survival story, but a touching story about overcoming prejudices and seeing a person for whom they really are.

I am in sixth grade now and our english teacher picked the book The Cay by Theadore Taylore to read as an assigned book. The Cay was the most recent assigned book we have read so we are still doing essays. Just by looking at the cover, this book look stupid to me. But when I read it, it was excellent. My teacher is always making us write essays for assigned books. The topics for our Cay essays were as followed: Phillip's immaturity changing to mature; Phillip's prejudice towards blacks and then accepting blacks; a newspaper article on the German & Dutch war; a brochure for presuading people to visit a Caribbean island; a newspaper article on the rescue of Phillip; and a couple others I can't think of. I mostly got A+ and A's on all of these essays. The only thing that brought the 10 rating down to a 9 is because it was hard to read when Timothy talked. But other wise I would give it a ten. I think that this book would be good for boys and girls ages 11+. I am 12 now so I would qulafy. I hope you will read this book. It is awesome!!!

This book was awesome! It started out with a boy named Phillip who lived in the Caribbean. Phillip and his family were racist toward black people. They kinfd of thought that thet were bums! During the book, 1942, some German tankers were attacking the ships that went out to sea. After a while Phillips mother did not feel safe where they lived. She wanted to go back to Virginia were they had lived before they moved south. Since Phillips dad had a steady job and was helping in the war he decided that it would be best if they stayed on the island. Phillips mother preferred to go back to the states. Phillip and his mother went back alone. On their way they got bombed. their was a great explosion and everyone was frightened. They made it to the life boats safely with the other passangers. But they did not stay in the boat for long. The boat capsized and phillip got knocked on the head. When he woke up he was on a boat with his worst enemy, a black man. He was a very, very ugly and he was very, very large. Phillip was very frightened. But mainly he was scared about knowing where his mother was. During this whole timeon this lifeboat with this black man named Timothy, Phillip had a terrible headache. One day he woke up and he was blind. The only plus was that his headache was gone. One day they landed on an island. They were stuck on it for a long time. While they were on the island there was a hurricane. It mad a log fall on both of them. It knocked both of them out. But Timothy did not wake up. Shortly a ship came and saved Phillip. The conflict in this book were man vs. man, man vs. nature, man vs. socirty, and man vs. himself. The man vs. man was the white people on the island and the black people on the island. The man vs. nature was on the island a hurrican struck and killed Timothy. The third conflict was man vs. society. it was the pressure on Phillips family to not like blacks. And the fourth conflict was man vs. himself. This was Phillip against himself. He had to deal with his blindness. In all I like this book. It was a very educational book because I learned what it was like during a hurricane. I also learned that the Island of Curaco was just north of Venezuela. I feel that anyone in the age group of fourth through eigth grade should read this book. It is not easy but it is defenitely not too hard. In conclusion this book defenitely deserves five stars. Like I said it was awsome.

Although there are plenty of books about people who survive in the cold wilderness, I chose to include this island adventure in my fifth grade unit on survival. Not only did it get my students talking about survival skills, but it also allowed them to respond to the character's feelings on race in a neutral way. The students who read this book, both black and white, said that their discussions were very enlightening. I'd suggest this to teachers and parents as a good group novel or read-aloud.

I first read this short novel in 6th grade and was really drawn into the quick, fast read as well as the challenges Philip and Timothy had to face just to survive. Over the course of some 35 years, I've read it a few other times. I just finished reading to my 9-year-old and enjoyed it again. This is one of those truly timeless tales.

The book is almost 40 years old, and was set back in World War II, which required some explaining on my part to set up the background and the war period. However, once that was out of the way, we flew through the pages regarding Philip's adventures after his ship was torpedoed by a Nazi submarine.

The relationship built up between Timothy and Philip, though briefly described in this 144-page book, is powerful. It's stayed with me after all these years, but I still found it fresh and new. Reading it through the first time, I was drawn to Philip and his struggles, but reading it through now, I found myself thinking more of Timothy. Having raised kids of my own, I know how hard it must have been for him to survive alone much less take care of an 11-year-old boy that was angry at him and didn't want to listen.

This novel is definitely kid-friends, and provides just enough information to make young minds think about social conditions that have improved but still continue to be a problem. The short, quick sentences, scenes, and chapters beg to be read aloud. And the adventure of simply staying alive on a small tropical storm will capture the minds of young readers/listeners.

I was disturbed to find, while researching the author, that he was awarded the Jane Addams Peace and Freedom Foundation Award for THE CAY in 1970 only to have them ask for it back after five years. At that point the book was deemed racist and pulled from the shelves for four years. Now it's sold over four million copies.

It's a truly wonderful story.

Phillip, a boy from Curacao, is excited about the war starting and that his Island is surrounded by battleships. When his mom wants to leave the island with Phillip until it's safer, his dad must stay because of work. When Phillip leaves with his mom, the boat is hit by an enemy torpedo. As the boat is sinking Phillip gets knocked out by a falling beam. He wakes up on a raft with a black man, Timothy, and a cat! Timothy teaches Phillip, blinded from his injury, to catch fish, make a shelter, and survive.

This is an excellent survival adventure book. The author, Theodore Taylor, really develops the character of Timothy well. His voice for this character will have you talking out loud in a Jamaican accent as you read the book. I really enjoyed the parts about the fishing and the hut building. Its very exciting when Phillip learns and discovers things. Like when he climbs the coconut tree or realizes that different leaves make different smoke. The oily smoke gets more attention from planes. When Phillip is blind, he learns to see with his heart not his eyes and not to judge people until you know them. This book published by Random House, Inc. 1540 Broadway New York, New York 10036. Copyright 1969.

The extraordinary book, The Cay, By:Theodore Taylor was a totally absorbing story, starkly dramatic, beliveable and compelling. Phillip was so frightend he could barely breathe. All around him were shark infested waters of the Caribbean, and darkness. Blined by a blow to his head when his ship was torpedoed, he was adrift on a wooden raft with the big black man who worked on the deck. After a couple of days on the raft, they reached the isolated Cay,they called The Devil's Mouth. There is not really a very big part in the book that held me to supense, but I enjoyed learning that there is more than one way to really "see" something. And although Phillip never saw the place, all he has to do is close his eyes and listen. I guess you can say that Phillip learned a lot from his mother. He learned how to be creative and use the things around him to get by. What I mean is that he took the palm tree leaves and woove them into a mat for him and Timothy to sleep on. There are only two conflicts that happens in this book, and they are man verse himself and man verse nature. The conflict man verse himself accures when Phillip has to reach inside himself and do the right thing. The conflict man verse nature is when he has to deal with the storms, adjust tot he weather and etc. Also, they got sick of drinking water so Timothy found out that inside the coconuts there is milk. Phillip decided to climb a tree, so I thought that was great because he is blind after all. I gave this book five shiny gold stars because eventhough Phillip was blind he was still able to take care of himself,with the help of his wise friend Timothy. Given the oppertunity to read this book I think anyone would enjoy it,I know I did! Just because there isn't much supense, you would want to keep readind to find out what happens. In conclusion I'm sure anyone who reads this book would love it! I mean if most of a book was based on a blind kid making a way for himself to live, wouldn't you want to know how he did it?

I loved this book! This book all started out on a little island off the coast of Venezuela, name Curacao. 11 year old Phillip and his family were transferred there because of his dad's job. Suddenly a war broke out and Phillips mother did not think that it was safe to stay in Curacao, so she decided to take Phillip with her and then meet up with her husband after the war was over. On the way back to Virginia, where they were originally from, the ship was torpedoed. Suddenly a kind gentlemen pulled Phillip on the raft, but unfortunetly, was not able to get his mother. It turns out that the kind man's name was Timothy and he was very nice to Phillip. Timothy and Phillip end up being stranded on their little raft for several days, until finally they spotted land. Phillip was a little hesitant at first, but he decided to go ahead and step foot on this mysterious island. **Will they survive, or will death be promised ashore this beautiful island.?***

I like the Cay, but at the beginning it was really slow and boring. I started getting into it when Phillip and his mother got split up because of the torpedo. I hated Stew Cat because I hate cats in general. It gives a great message saying DON'T BE PREDJUDICE!!! It tests Phillip on survival, strength, and friendship. I liked how in the end, Phillip wasn't prejudice. (I would give this 3 1/2 stars but they didn't let me)