The Cay

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. What elements are common to novels that are survival stories? What traits do protagonists typically reveal in survival stories?

Teaching Suggestion: This question connects to the theme Surviving Against the Odds. The Cay is a classic survival story; there are many others in the genre with which students might be familiar. Once students have identified commonalities, they might determine category headings (e.g., setting, conflict, resolution, etc.) and group elements by category. Traits that enable characters to survive in these stories might include physical strength, mental resilience, creativity, knowledge of nature, and the ability to stay hopeful.

• Eight Below Trailer - The movie Eight Below is about ​​two Antarctic explorers who are forced to leave their team of sled dogs in order to survive. Watching the trailer may help students identify the characteristics of a survival story.
• “Survival Stories” - These are Reader’s Digest’s real-life survival stories. Students might utilize one or several pre-approved stories to analyze for commonalities. (Teacher-appropriate; not student-facing without teacher guidance due to mature content and potential sensitivity issues.)

2. How were the Caribbean Islands affected by WWII, especially Curaçao? What role did the islands play in the war, and what effects did the war have on the people living there?

Teaching Suggestion: The Cay is set in the Caribbean during WWII, and the characters are directly impacted by the war. If students have little background in this historical topic, they might speculate responses based on tangential knowledge of World War II and Caribbean history; finding Curaçao on a map and comparing its location to other nations involved in the conflict might promote logical speculation as well. Instead, students might use the prompt as a guided research activity and spend time investigating the questions with reputable sources. The articles below may be helpful in comparing how Curaçaoan people and Americans have viewed the events of WWII. The timeline provided by the Curaçaoan website could serve as a discussion point for specific events that might be viewed differently by both sides.

• “Guerna na Kòrsou? - War in Curaçao” - This resource provides a timeline of the events in WWII that impacted the island of Curaçao. It documents the events from multiple perspectives.
• “History of the US Mission on Curaçao” - This article from the US Consulate General in Curaçao discusses the events preceding, during, and after WWII in Curaçao. It is written from the American perspective.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the novel.

Why do you think the coming-of-age theme is so popular in middle grade and young adult literature? What messages are commonly conveyed through coming-of-age stories, and how do you as a reader usually respond to them?

Teaching Suggestion: After journaling independently, students might meet briefly with a partner or in a small group to share and compare responses. Alternatively, these questions would suit a whole-group discussion using Socratic seminar guidelines.

Differentiation Suggestion: For an approach that offers an opportunity for literary analysis, students might review or research the coming-of-age angles in a variety of middle grade texts and compile a list of analytical points that show connections between the protagonists.

• “Classic Coming-of-Age Books for Young Readers” from Scholastic and similar lists might be helpful in compiling titles to analyze.