Every year I start our 5th grade book club with this book. It is an oldie but a goodie. The Cay by Theodore Taylor is about a blind boy stranded on an island with an old man and a cat.
Fridays are our discussion days, and this class loves to argue, debate and discuss the book. I sit at a student's desk, participating on equal terms with the kids. We talk about black and white relations, what it would feel like to be blind, and whether or not it is okay for boys to cry. It's powerful stuff.
After we are done with the book we watch the movie. Now this movie is something a former teacher taped off of an After School Special back in 1980. It stars James Earl Jones in what must be one of his first acting jobs. It's pretty bad, and I don't just mean the quality of the tape. The kids love to debate why they left out a part or why a certain scene was filmed in a certain way. I always give my "Never watch a movie before you read the book" speech.
I have looked for a DVD of this movie on the internet and it doesn't seem to exist. I think James Earl Jones had something to do with that...
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