The Cay

Phillip's mother didn't like black people. "They are different," she had told him. Phillip had never believed her before, but now...After all, Timothy was different. He was huge, and he was very old, and to Phillip he seemed ugly. And he was the most stubborn man Phillip had ever known. But after the Germans torpedoed the freighter on which he and his mother were traveling during wartime, Phillip found himself dependent on the old West Indian. There were just the two on them cast up on the barren little Carribbean island--three, if you counted Stew Cat--and a crack on the head had left Phillip blind.

Their struggle for survival and Phillip's efforts to adjust to his blindness and to understand the dignified, wise, and loving old man who was his companion make this a memorable tale.