Book excerpt: See how the basic need for survival can break down barriers in this gripping story of overcoming prejudices. Challenge students to think deeply about the themes presented in this story. Imagine the hindrances experienced by those with a disability, and in what ways they are able to overcome them. Identify different statements from the novel as proof Timothy and Philip will be rescued or they will perish. Complete sentences from the book with their missing vocabulary words. Students share a time when they overcame a fear to accomplish a task. Using the author's descriptive language, describe the storm that hits the little island. Using the description Timothy provides to Phillip, research the tea bird and draw a picture of it along with a fact sheet. Aligned to your State Standards and written to Bloom's Taxonomy, additional crossword, word search, comprehension quiz and answer key are also included. About 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.