The Cay

Sample Pages/Table of Contents

The Cay - Study Guide

The Literature Kit

In this Literature Kit™, the novel is divided by chapters or sections and feature reading comprehension and vocabulary questions. In every chapter, you find Before You Read and After You Read questions. The Before You Read activities prepare students for reading by setting a purpose for reading. They stimulate background knowledge and experience, and guide students to make connections between what they know and what they will learn. The After You Read activities check students' comprehension and extend their learning. Students are asked to give thoughtful consideration of the text through creative and evaluative short-answer questions and journal prompts. Also included are writing tasks, graphic organizers, comprehension quiz, word search, and crossword to further develop students' critical thinking and writing skills, and analysis of the text.

The Novel

The Cay is a story about a man and a boy who get stranded on an island and struggle to survive with each other. 11-year-old Phillip Enright and his mother board a ship to Virginia in the hopes of escaping the German submarines that are surrounding the area around Curaçao. Along the way, the ship gets torpedoed by one such submarine. Phillip is blinded and stranded out to sea with an old African American man named Timothy and a cat named Stew Cat. The group find themselves on a tiny island, where they survive by fishing and collecting rain water. During their time, Timothy and Phillip struggle to work together, partly due to Phillip's racial prejudices. In the end, the two must learn to work together in the hopes of survival and eventual rescue. The Cay is a gripping story of survival and overcoming prejudices.

Note: The book must be purchased separately. The Cay