Most Popular Books by Theodore Taylor

For fans of Hatchet and Island of the Blue Dolphins comes Theodore Taylor’s classic bestseller and Lewis Carroll Shelf Award winner, The Cay. 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. “Mr. Taylor has provided an exciting story…The idea that all humanity would benefit from this special form of color blindness permeates the whole book…The result is a story with a high ethical purpose but no sermon.”—New York Times Book Review “A taut tightly compressed story of endurance and revelation…At once barbed and tender, tense and fragile—as Timothy would say, ‘outrageous good.’”—Kirkus Reviews * “Fully realized setting…artful, unobtrusive use of dialect…the representation of a hauntingly deep love, the poignancy of which is rarely achieved in children’s literature.”—School Library Journal, Starred “Starkly dramatic, believable and compelling.”—Saturday Review “A tense and moving experience in reading.”—Publishers Weekly “Eloquently underscores the intrinsic brotherhood of man.”—Booklist "This is one of the best survival stories since Robinson Crusoe."—The Washington Star · A New York Times Best Book of the Year · 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

Available for the first time in a Yearling edition, the classic, inspiring story of a dog who triumphs against all odds, by the bestselling author of The Cay. Helen adored her beautiful golden Labrador from the first moment he was placed in her arms, a squirming fat sausage of creamy yellow fur. As her best friend, Friar Tuck waited daily for Helen to come home from school and play. He guarded her through the long, scary hours of the dark night. Twice he even saved her life. Now it''s Helen''s turn. No one can say exactly when Tuck began to go blind. Probably the light began to fail for him long before the alarming day when he raced after some cats and crashed through the screen door, apparently never seeing it. But from that day on, Tuck''s trouble--and how to cope with it--becomes the focus of Helen''s life. Together they fight the chain that holds him and threatens to break his spirit, until Helen comes up with a solution so new, so daring, there''s no way it can fail.

A companion to Taylor''s bestselling modern classic "The Cay," this prequel-sequel tells the rest of the story of Phillip, a young white boy, and Timothy, an old black man, who become stranded on a small sandy cay in the Caribbean.

Vacationing on what they think is an uninhabited island, fifteen-year-old Peg and her father find their adventure turned into a fight for survival.

"First-class . . . more than the biography of a great aviator and military leader. It also is a detailed and lively history of naval aviation." — The New York Times Air Adm. Marc Mitscher is a legend in military circles for developing an entirely new concept of war at sea. His skills as both a carrier tactician and genius for leading men rank him with the best World War II combat commanders. However, because Mitscher shunned publicity and destroyed his private papers shortly before his death in 1947, his accomplishments are not widely known. In this outstanding biography, Theodore Taylor traces the aviator''s brilliant career from its beginnings and makes clear the major role played by the admiral in developing the Navy''s air program, providing a lively and detailed history of the progress of naval aviation. "The likable personality and day by day achievements of Mitscher shine through to lift this above the run of the mill military biography." — Kirkus Reviews

This YA Western adventure imagines an alternate fate for the famous outlaw: " Readers will hang on anxiously and eagerly as the plot gallops [forward]" ( Publishers Weekly, starred review). William H. Bonney Jr., better known as Billy the Kid, isn''t afraid to take risks. But when a train passenger recognizes him in the middle of a heist near his hometown, it seems like the odds have finally caught up with him. Fed up with Billy''s bad ways, The Law sends its best man to bring him in: Sheriff Willis Monroe, Billy''s own cousin and former best friend. But Willis isn''t the only one on Billy''s tail. The Kid''s back-stabbing partners are hunting him, too—and a conniving posse wants Billy (and the sheriff!) dead. This fictional tale of real-life legend Billy the Kid imagines William Bonney''s fate had his life of crime taken a very different turn. This edition includes an author''s note about the real Billy the Kid.

"A high-impact techno-thriller [that] brings readers into the heart of WWII''s Battle of the Atlantic . . . To Kill the Leopard is a winner." — Publishers Weekly The U-boat under Horst Kammerer''s command bears a leopard insignia, and Kammerer is indeed a feral hunter as he torpedoes Sully Jordan''s oil tanker. The merchant marine escapes with his life—only to encounter Kammerer again a month after Pearl Harbor. After Jordan loses yet another ship to the German captain, he boards a Q-ship—a decoy packed with weapons—with the intention of becoming predator instead of prey . . . "The novel sustains interest from first page to last with an exciting story line that climaxes in an enthralling final duel." — Publishers Weekly "Realistic submarine suspense . . . Leaps from scenes aboard a Nazi U-boat to scenes on freighters sailed by American merchant mariner Sully Jordan to scenes in Lorient, France, where the Resistance works against the Occupation." — Kirkus Reviews

In this first novel of a trilogy, eleven-year-old Ben rescues an English girl from a shipwreck off the Outer Banks of North Carolina; and, though she becomes part of his family, she never speaks.

From New York Times bestselling illustrator Theodore Taylor III comes a vibrant ode to street art, a picture book about a child discovering all of the beauty—and art—her new neighborhood has to offer. Shapes moving in every direction, letters weaving in and out, bright colors jumping off of the wall. It was like a language from another planet that only I could understand. Graffiti. In this bright, colorful, and movement-filled picture book Off the Wall, a young girl moves with her family from the big city to a small town. She feels odd and out of place until a stroll down the street hits her with echoes from home: vibrant graffiti splashed against the wall. But when it''s painted over that sense of belonging is lost, until an afternoon''s adventure shows her that street art can be found everywhere—as well as a sense of home. In his exceptional author-illustrated debut, Theodore Taylor III has crafted an ode to street art, a stunning celebration of a much-maligned art form and all the beauty it brings to a neighborhood.

In bestselling novelist Taylor''s story, a 16-year-old boy must take charge of his family''s wildlife preserve while his parents are away. But the job gets harder when one of the preserve''s biggest tigers is kidnapped.

Chip Clewt, known simply as the weirdo, lives like a hermit in the Powhatan Swamp, a National Wildlife Refuge that is at the center of a heated controversy between local hunters and environmentalists. A hunting ban on the Powhatan is about to expire. The environmentalists want to protect the wildlife; the hunters are oiling their guns. Then someone completely unexpected comes forward to spearhead the conservation effort--the weirdo. Includes a reader''s guide.

In 1945, when the Americans liberate the Bikini Atoll from the Japanese, 14-year-old Sorry Rinamu does not realize that the next year he will lead a desperate effort to save his island home from a much more deadly threat, in this long-out-of-print novel by the acclaimed author of "The Cay."

In 1935, living at a lighthouse near San Francisco, a lonely nine-year-old boy inadvertently summons a magician who teaches him the secret of flying.

This biography of America''s first African American naval aviator is a "compelling portrait of a quiet hero [and] the racial climate between 1926 and 1959" ( Booklist). "In the late 1940s, when every aspiring black pilot had heard of the army''s Tuskegee program, Jesse Leroy Brown set his sights on becoming a navy aviator. An outstanding student and top athlete, the 17-year-old''s ambition was met with a combination of incredulity and resistance. Yet, at a time when Jim Crow laws were rampant, Brown managed to break the color barrier to become the first black U.S. Navy pilot. Taylor puts his considerable narrative skills to good use in tracing Brown''s path from his youth in poverty-stricken Palmer''s Crossing, Miss., to his eventual induction into the heady and dangerous world of carrier aviation. Taylor based much of his research on interviews with those who knew Brown and on personal letters from more than a half-century ago [and] doesn''t skimp on the indignities Brown suffered. . . . An engaging and intimate glimpse of a young pioneer who desperately wanted to earn his aviator''s wings." — Publishers Weekly "More than a biography, this is a thrilling story of naval aviation and combat." — School Library Journal

The year is 1868, and fourteen-year-old Alika and his younger brother, Sulu, are hunting for seals on an ice floe attached to their island in the Arctic. Suddenly the ice starts to shake, and they hear a loud crack--the terrible sound of the floe breaking free from land. The boys watch with horror as the dark expanse of water between the ice and the shore rapidly widens, and they start drifting south--away from their home, their family, and everything they''ve ever known. Throughout their six-month-long journey down the Greenland Strait, the brothers face bitter cold, starvation, and most frightening of all, vicious polar bears. But they still remain hopeful that one day they''ll be rescued. This thrilling new adventure story from bestselling author Theodore Taylor is a moving testament to the bond between brothers--and to the strength of the human spirit. Includes a map, a glossary of Inuit words and phrases, and an author''s note..

In 1942, America’s most crucial mission was to provide arms and supplies to our English and Russian allies. Theodore Taylor, who served in the merchant marines in World War II, tells the tragic tale of a convoy of 33 ships that sailed from Iceland to Russia in an effort to bring the Soviets needed tanks, trucks, airplanes, and ammunition. In vivid detail, Taylor follows one of the ships through the frigid waters of the Arctic as it battles Nazi bombers and submarines--and as its crew helplessly watches many of their companion ships perish in the mad dash to safe port.

Ben and Teetoncey take to the sea--he, to find his brother, and she, to escape a forced return to England. But can they survive storms, harsh ship life, and a relentless pursuer?

To save her home, feisty teenage orphan Susan Carlisle makes a harrowing journey from Iowa to California to sell her sheep to gold miners and falls in love with Clay Carmer, in an adventure set in the 1850s.