Written by: Theodore Taylor
First line: Like silent, hungry sharks that swim in the darkness of the sea, the German submarines arrived in the middle of the night.
Why you should read this book: When war comes to the island of Curaçao, Phillip's mother insists on returning to America for safety, but it turns out that Philip's father, who thought it would be safer to stay put, was right, and Phillip finds himself drifting through the ocean in a lifeboat with a concussion, a cat, and a very old sailor called Timothy. Phillip's head injury resolves itself into blindness and although the ship washes up on a tiny and uninhabited cay, he must confront the reality of the prejudices his mother instilled in him regarding Black people, and the reality of being shipwrecked, and blind, and needing to learn from Timothy all the skills necessary to survive on a desert island. Both a cracking good adventure story and a classic resource for unlearning racism.
Why you shouldn't read this book: This is one of those books that everyone should read, and it's probably weird that I just read it for the first time this week.
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