So for my first Throwback Thursday I'll be discussing The Cay by Theodore Taylor.
Way back when I was in fifth grade my favorite part of the day was when my teacher would read to the class. If we ever went a day where my teacher didn't have time to read, it would be a horrible day. She always chose the best books to read but The Cay was the absolute best.
The story takes place when World War II breaks out. One of the main characters is a boy named Phillip who is living on a ship with his mother to avoid the war. However, in the very beginning of the novel the ship is attacked and Phillip and his mother must flee. Unfortunately, Phillip and his mother are split up and Phillip suffers from a blow to the head and is knocked unconscious. He wakes to find that 1) he is blind because of his head injury and 2) he is stranded in a boat in the middle of the ocean with an old man named Timothy. Timothy is not white but West Indian and Phillip was raised to believe that black people were "different" because of what his mother would tell him. However, throughout the novel Phillip overcomes his racism and realizes there's nothing different about Timothy or any other person with dark skin. Phillip and Timothy reach an island and live there for about two months. Timothy teaches Phillip how to be independent because there's the possibility of the two being split up. I'll stop there with the plot because I don't want to give too much away.
What really interested me about this story when my teacher first read it to me was the survival aspect. I had never read a book about survival before this and I was instantly interested in it. The adventure, the dialogue, the relationship between Timothy and Phillip; all these things made me love the story. I absolutely loved Timothy and I still do. The cliffhanger at the end especially amazed me. Before this book, all stories I read ended on a happy note with everything resolved. This one did not and I couldn't believe it when my teacher shut the book and told us that that was the end. I could not accept that ending but luckily there is a second book. The second book is just as wonderful as the first and we get to know Timothy more in it.
I would definitely recommend this book to everyone, children or adults. In a way it kind of reminds me of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (that's a throwback for another day). You can find The Cay on Goodreads here!
Well, I hoped you enjoyed my first Throwback Thursday! It was fun to think about this book after so many years!
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