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The Cay

Theodore Taylor · back to the book

What’s in it

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24 books with the same feel

Include books by the same author
❤️

The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle

Hugh Lofting · 268 pages

When his colleague Long Arrow disappears, Dr. Dolittle sets off with his assistant, Tommy Stubbins, his dog, Jip, and Polynesia the parrot on an adventurous voyage over tropical seas to floating Spidermonkey Island.

Mentor RelationshipIslandChild NarratorOcean and Ships
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The Old Man and the Sea

Ernest Hemingway · 127 pages

Set in the Gulf Stream off the coast of Havana, Hemingway's magnificent fable is the tale of an old man, a young boy and a giant fish. This story of heroic endeavour won Hemingway the Nobel Prize for Literature. It stands as a unique and timeless vision of the beauty and grief of man's challenge to the elements.

CaribbeanSurvival StoryMentor RelationshipOcean and Ships
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Refugee

Alan Gratz · 352 pages

Although separated by continents and decades, Josef, a Jewish boy living in 1930s Nazi Germany; Isabel, a Cuban girl trying to escape the riots and unrest plaguing her country in 1994; and Mahmoud, a Syrian boy in 2015 whose homeland is torn apart by violence and destruction, embark on harrowing journeys in search of refuge, discovering shocking connections that tie their stories together.

Survival StoryOcean and ShipsRacismAdventure
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Touching Spirit Bear

Ben Mikaelsen · 289 pages

Survival StoryMentor RelationshipIslandMiddle Grade
❤️

Kensuke's Kingdom

Michael Morpurgo · 165 pages

Michael's parents buy a yacht, and take him off to sail round the world. Washed overboard in a fierce storm, Michael finds himself on the shore of a remote island - and soon discovers he's not alone. Kensuke, a former Japanese soldier, survived the war and the bombing of Hiroshima, but his family perished. As an extraordinary bond forms between the two, Kensuke faces a heart-breaking choice: can h

Survival StoryMentor RelationshipOcean and ShipsIsland
❤️

The Black Stallion

Walter Farley · 196 pages

***Story of a horse the New York Times has called ''the most famous fictional horse of the Century!''*** Young Alec is on his way home when a black stallion is loaded on to his ship. In a tragic shipwreck Alec saves the life of the black stallion. Stranded on an island the only way to survive is to trust the other. **Will Alec ever make it safely home? Will the Black beat the two best racing ho

IslandSurvival StoryOcean and ShipsMiddle Grade
❤️

Peter and the Starcatchers

Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson · 451 pages

Le jeune Peter et quatre de ses amis quittent la maison de redressement pour embarquer de force sur le Never Land. A bord, Molly montre à Peter une malle remplie de poussière d'étoiles qui permet de voler. Ils unissent leurs forces pour la protéger du pirate Black Stache. Premier épisode d'une série sur la rencontre de Peter et Stache, les futurs Peter Pan et capitaine Crochet.

IslandOcean and ShipsMentor RelationshipMiddle Grade
❤️

Life of Pi

Yann Martel · 336 pages

After the tragic sinking of a cargo ship, one solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild, blue Pacific. The only survivors from the wreck are a sixteen-year-old boy named Pi, a hyena, a zebra (with a broken leg), a female orang-utan… and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger. The scene is set for one of the most extraordinary works of fiction in recent years.

Survival StoryIslandOcean and ShipsAdventure
❤️

Call It Courage

Armstrong Sperry · 114 pages

Mafatu has been afraid of the sea for as long as he can remember. Though his father is the Great Chief of Hikueru - an island whose seafaring people worship courage - Mafatu feels like an outsider. All his life he has been teased, taunted, and even blamed for storms on the sea. Then at age fifteen, no longer willing to put up with the ridicule and jibes, Mafatu decides to take his fate into hi

Survival StoryOcean and ShipsIslandAdventure
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The Swiss Family Robinson

Johann David Wyss · 340 pages

Survival StoryIslandOcean and ShipsMiddle Grade
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Island of the Blue Dolphins

Scott O'Dell · 184 pages

Story of a young girl abandoned on a small island by her family and her village, and of her fight for survival. The incredible courage, determination and strength of this girl is showcased throughout as she learns to do the things that only the men of her tribe did before, and battles not only the hunters who frequent the island, but also her desperate loneliness as well... Excellent read fo

Survival StoryOcean and ShipsIslandMiddle Grade
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Anna and the Swallow Man

Gavriel Savit · 248 pages

Krak w, 1939. A million marching soldiers and a thousand barking dogs. This is no place to grow up. Anna Lania is just seven years old when the Germans take her father, a linguistics professor, during their purge of intellectuals in Poland. She s alone. And then Anna meets the Swallow Man. He is a mystery, strange and tall, a skilled deceiver with more than a little magic up his sleeve. And when t

Child NarratorSurvival StoryMentor RelationshipAdventure
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The End

Lemony Snicket · 368 pages

When Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire find themselves in the same boat as Count Olaf, after all the treachery that happened at the Hotel Denoument, in the middle of nowhere, they think there is nothing worse that can happen, until a horrid storm comes. When the wake up they find themselves on a simple island, where you eat and drink the same things, wear the same things, and do the same things.

IslandOcean and ShipsSurvival StoryAdventure
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Impossible Creatures

Katherine Rundell · 358 pages

IslandMentor RelationshipOcean and ShipsMiddle Grade
❤️

Forge

Laurie Halse Anderson · 320 pages

Separated from his friend Isabel after their daring escape from slavery, fifteen-year-old Curzon serves as a free man in the Continental Army at Valley Forge until he and Isabel are thrown together again, as slaves once more.

RacismSurvival StoryMiddle GradeAdventure
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La Belle Sauvage

Philip Pullman · 464 pages

Malcolm Polstead is the kind of boy who notices everything but is not much noticed himself. And so perhaps it was inevitable that he would become a spy.... Malcolm's father runs an inn called the Trout, on the banks of the river Thames, and all of Oxford passes through its doors. Malcolm and his daemon, Asta, routinely overhear news and gossip, and the occasional scandal, but during a winter of

Survival StoryMentor RelationshipOcean and ShipsAdventure
🙂

Stranded

Jeff Probst, Chris Tebbetts · 176 pages

Jane, Buzz, Carter, and Vanessa, aged nine to thirteen, are on a sailing trip in the South Pacific intended to help them bond in their newly-blended family when a massive storm strands them on a deserted island.

Survival StoryIslandOcean and ShipsAdventure
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A Long Vacation

Jules Verne · 224 pages

Survival StoryIslandOcean and ShipsMiddle Grade
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Mr. Tucket

Gary Paulsen · 166 pages

Fourteen-year-old Francis Tucket is heading west on the Oregon Trail with his family by wagon train. When he receives a rifle for his birthday, he is thrilled that he is being treated like an adult. But Francis lags behind to practice shooting and is captured by Pawnees. It will take wild horses, hostile tribes, and a mysterious one-armed mountain man named Mr. Grimes to help Francis become the ma

Survival StoryMentor RelationshipMiddle GradeAdventure
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The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963

Christopher Paul Curtis · 239 pages

The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the Watsons, an African American family living in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963.

Child NarratorRacismMiddle GradeTeen Protagonist
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A Wizard of Earthsea

Ursula K. Le Guin · 198 pages

The first novel of Ursula K. Le Guin's must-read Earthsea Cycle. "The magic of Earthsea is primal; the lessons of Earthsea remain as potent, as wise, and as necessary as anyone could dream." (Neil Gaiman) Ged was the greatest sorcerer in Earthsea, but in his youth he was the reckless Sparrowhawk. In his hunger for power and knowledge, he tampered with long-held secrets and loosed a terrible sha

IslandOcean and ShipsMentor RelationshipAdventure
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The Raft

S.A. Bodeen

Robie is an experienced traveler. She’s taken the flight from Honolulu to the Midway Atoll, a group of Pacific islands where her parents live, many times. When she has to get to Midway in a hurry after a visit with her aunt in Hawaii, she gets on the next cargo flight at the last minute. She knows the pilot, but on this flight, there’s a new co-pilot named Max. All systems are go until a storm hit

Survival StoryIslandOcean and ShipsMiddle Grade
🙂

The Swiss Family Robinson (Classic Starts Series)

Chris Tait, Johann David Wyss · 160 pages

Survival StoryIslandOcean and ShipsMiddle Grade
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The Coral Island

R.M. Ballantyne

Survival StoryIslandOcean and ShipsAdventure
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