Phillip is excited when the Germans invade the small island of Curaçao. War has always been a game to him, 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.
"A tense and moving experience in reading."-- Publishers Weekly
"Eloquently underscores the intrinsic brotherhood of man."-- Booklist
- A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
- A Horn Book Honor Book
- An American Library Association Notable Book
- A Publishers Weekly Children's Book to Remember
- A Child Study Association's Pick of Children's Books of the Year
- Jane Addams Book Award
- Lewis Carroll Shelf Award
- Commonwealth Club of California: Literature Award
- Southern California Council on Literature for Children and Young People Award
- Woodward School Annual Book Award
- Friends of the Library Award, University of California at Irvine