The Cay
Ratings32
Average rating3.5
This was so well-written AND THE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT!! I love how strong the bond between them became and just- idk I guess this book just really makes you think about things, about life....
A beautiful short story about the goodness of people and the resilience we can have in difficult situations.
~Full review here on The Bent Bookworm!~I wasn't at all sure what to expect going into this. I'd never heard of the book or the author despite it apparently being a “children's classic” (??), but Gary Paulsen (didn't we all read Hatchet?) wrote the introduction so I thought it surely couldn't be too bad. I was super skeptical though, on reading the blurb...I mean, it's clearly meant to be a demonstration of how we are all PEOPLE above whatever color our skin is, but I was concerned that a book written in 1969 might not be as socially aware as it was thought at the time of publication.It was an entertaining enough little story, if a little slow at times. The style is a little dated, and I think modern kids might get bored (my husband said it was a slog for him), but an avid reader would breeze through it. I'm still a little on the fence as far as the representation. Timothy, the black man who saves Phillip from the sinking ship, is West Indian and repeatedly described as ugly – it does seem that most of his ugliness in Phillip's eyes is due to his age, though whenever Philip has a disagreement with Timothy he blames it on Timothy's race. At first he agrees with his mother's statement on black people, “They are different and they live differently. That's the way it must be.” Gradually however, he changes his mind as he actually gets to know Timothy and Timothy cares for him week after week. It was definitely predictable, but the addition of Stew Cat was sweet and I loved how he and Philip were such good buddies.Timothy's dialogue is ALL written in dialect, something that is not only (in my opinion) annoying to read but also tends to belittle the character speaking the lines. I understand it can and is sometimes only used as a device to help the reader imagine the way a character sounds – after all, there are a lot of different accents in the world – but it's an older device and has fallen out of favor due to the frequent implication that the person is inferior in some way. Also, its use makes it more difficult for some of the intended audience to comprehend the dialogue.The dialect issue was probably my biggest one with the book, since by the time the resolution comes Philip has entirely revamped his view of black people (and we hope, of anyone else different from him). I was also bothered by another aspect of Timothy's story, but can't really discuss it without spoilers, so....I'll just leave it at that.Overall, it was an okay book. I think there are much BETTER books on the market now, that would suit the purpose of helping privileged kids see outside of their world, but in 1969 this was probably pretty revolutionary.Blog Twitter Bloglovin Instagram Google+
We listened to the entire book today as an audiobook from the Overdrive READS library system. I know it's one of those we read in fourth grade but in my mind it blends a bit with my experience of reading the Scott O'Dell dolphins book and Lord of the Flies et al. I was surprised by how much I was interested and actually enjoyed it.
The three year old and baby actually took a two plus hour nap while he five year old listened to almost all of it before she ran off to play. Yet then the rest if the afternoon was spent talked and acting on being on a raft, saving rain water for drinking, and surviving the hurricane.
While I know that racism is a big deal theme in the book, even as said by the author in the interview following the book, the main thing I took away is the survival. The will to live and truly live not just get by. He found things to do and eat but he found joy in things. That I think is an incredibly powerful message that I think kids need to read. Makes me think back to my first fav route book of The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi and Jennifer Holm's Boston Jane series. Lots of ideas for when the kids are reading and enjoying this level on their own.
Add to Wayfarers Ancients shelf. WWII.
I am astonished at all the things I learned from reading this very short children's chapter book. I never knew that Caribbean islands lay just offshore from Venezuela in South America. I never knew there were valuable oil refineries on these islands. And I never knew the Germans tried to destroy these refineries during World War II.
All of which appears in this story and all of which are based on true events.
A wonderful little story about a boy who connects unexpectedly with a person he'd thought to be inferior to him when the two are stranded on an island together. It's the setting that provides much of the charm, but it's also the way the author is able to continue to tell the story through our first person narrator even after the boy is blinded.
Nicely done.
