Author: Theodore Taylor

Published: 1994

Publisher: Puffin Modern Classics

Format: Paperback

Pages: 122

Suitable: Senior Primary / Secondary

War has always been a game to Phillip, and he's eager to glimpse it firsthand-until the freighter he and his mother are traveling to the United States on is torpedoed. When Phillip comes to, he is on a small raft in the middle of the sea. Besides Stew Cat, his only companion is an old West Indian, Timothy. Phillip remembers his mother's warning about black people: "They are different, and they live differently." But by the time the castaways arrive on a small island, Phillip's head injury has made him blind and dependent on Timothy.

Shipwrecked on a tiny Caribbean island, Philip must overcome his prejudice towards Timothy, the old black sailor who becomes the key to his survival.