Theodore Taylor Books In Order
Book links take you to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate I earn money from qualifying purchases.Publication Order of Cape Hatteras Trilogy Books
Teetoncey | (1974) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Teetoncey and Ben O'Neal | (1975) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Odyssey of Ben O'Neal | (1977) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of The Cay Books
Publication Order of Outer Banks Books
Stranger from the Sea | (1974) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Box of Treasures | (1975) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Into the Wind | (1977) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Tuck Books
Publication Order of Standalone Novels
The Body Trade | (1968) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Rebellion Town, Williamsburg, 1776 | (1973) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Children's War | (1974) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Sweet Friday Island | (1984) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Walking Up a Rainbow | (1986) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Maldonado Miracle | (1986) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Stalker | (1987) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Hostage | (1987) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Sniper | (1989) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Monocolo | (1991) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Weirdo | (1991) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
To Kill the Leopard | (1993) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Bomb | (1995) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
A Sailor Returns | (2001) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Boy Who Could Fly Without a Motor | (2002) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Lord of the Kill | (2002) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Ice Drift | (2005) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Billy the Kid | (2005) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Picture Books
Publication Order of Collections
Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books
The Magnificent Mitscher | (1954) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Air Raid--Pearl Harbor! | (1971) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Battle in the Arctic Sea | (1976) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
A Shepherd Watches, a Shepherd Sings | (1977) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Jule | (1979) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Battle Off Midway Island | (1981) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Battle in the English Channel | (1983) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Rocket Island | (1985) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Cats of Shambala | (1985) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
H. M. S. Hood Vs. Bismarck | (1989) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Flight of Jesse Leroy Brown | (1998) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Making Love to Typewriters | (2004) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Avon Camelot Books
Lottie & Lisa | (1952) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Summerdog Comes Home | (1980) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Baseball Fever | (1981) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
A Hippopotamus Ate the Teacher | (1981) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Trouble with Tuck | (1981) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Irma and Jerry | (1982) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Basic Fun | (1982) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Summerdog | (1983) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Esp McGee | (1983) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Tunnel to Yesterday | (1983) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Bet You Can! Science Possibilities to Fool You | (1983) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Rich Mitch | (1983) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Earth is Flat--And Other Great Mistakes | (1983) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Behind the Attic Wall | (1983) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Peggy Fleming: Portrait of an Iceskater | (1984) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Gremlins | (1984) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Maura's Angel | (1984) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Jellyfish Season | (1985) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Book 1 | (1985) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Mystery of the Melted Diamonds | (1986) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Ukrainian Egg Mystery | (1986) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Moroccan Mystery | (1986) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Ralph Fozbek and the Amazing Black Hole Patrol | (1986) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Flash Fry, Private Eye | (1986) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Anti-Peggy Plot | (1986) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Best Joke Book for Kids 2 | (1987) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Codebreaker Kids | (1987) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Summer Camp Creeps | (1987) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Case of the Lost Look-Alike | (1988) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Breezy | (1988) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Racing the Sun | (1988) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Anne Frank | (1989) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Ghost Brother | (1990) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Case of the Vanishing Villain | (1990) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Something Upstairs | (1990) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
A Haunting in Williamsburg | (1990) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Best Ever Kids' Book of Lists | (1991) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Adventures of King Midas | (1992) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Ask Me Anything About the Presidents | (1992) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Tons of Trash | (1992) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Maria, a Christmas Story | (1992) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
How to Travel Through Time | (1993) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Lucie Babbidge's House | (1993) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Beardance | (1993) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Christmas Countdown | (1993) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Miss Yonkers Goes Bonkers | (1994) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Mummy's Curse | (1994) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Super Snoop Sam Snout and the Case of the Missing Marble | (1994) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Main Street | (1994) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Comet Luck | (1994) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Kwanzaa | (1995) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Vampire Mom | (1995) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
My Own Two Feet | (1995) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Spookhouse | (1995) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Harry the Poisonous Centipede | (1996) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Going for the Gold: Shannon Miller | (1996) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Four Perfect Pebbles | (1996) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Zombie Queen | (1996) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Freak Show | (1996) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Going to Net | (1996) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Lasting Echoes | (1997) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Tracks in the Snow | (1997) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Painting the Black | (1997) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Danger Along the Ohio | (1997) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
No Pretty Pictures: A Child of War | (1998) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Night of the Chupacabras | (1998) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
As Ever, Gordy | (1998) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Becoming Felix | (1998) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Breakaway | (1998) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Mischief, Mad Mary, and Me | (1998) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
It's In Your Hands, Daisy P. Duckwitz | (1998) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Leaving Summer | (1998) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Flea Circus Summer | (1998) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Calling Me Home | (1998) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Pizza That Time Forgot | (1999) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Love Me, Love My Broccoli | (1999) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Get on the Net | (1999) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Don't Try This at Home! | (1999) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Bruce Coville's Shapeshifters | (1999) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
A Kids' Guide to America's Bill of Rights | (1999) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Bruce Coville's Alien Visitors | (1999) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Green Mango Magic | (1999) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
All the Answers | (2000) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Can of Worms | (2000) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Orphan Journey Home | (2000) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Bearstone | (2000) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Alice-by-Accident | (2000) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Death at Devil's Bridge | (2000) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Heart of a Champion | (2008) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Theodore Taylor is an American author who died in 2006. Even though he wrote plenty of adult fiction, Theodore is best known for his young adult novels many of which were inspired by real-life experiences.
+Biography
Theodore Taylor was born in 1921 in North Carolina, though he didn’t stay for long. Theodore’s life eventually took him all over the world. The author grew up during the Depression so he’s intimately acquainted with poverty.
By the time he was ten, Theodore Taylor was waking up before dawn to deliver newspapers in the hopes that he could contribute substantially to the family income. Theodore always got along perfectly well on his own.
He was always wandering the streets of his hometown, getting into a little bit of trouble and collecting experiences that would stay with him for the rest of his life. Writing came easily enough to the author.
He started experimenting with the habit at a young age. By the time he started his teens, the author was a prominent author in his high school, covering his school’s sporting events for the ‘Evening Star’, a publication in Portsmouth, Virginia.
By the time he was seventeen, Theodore Taylor was a copyboy for the Washington, D.C. Daily News. Money was still tight at the time and it took all of Theodore’s wits to survive so far from home.
After a stint writing for radio, Theodore followed his peers into the Second World War, serving as a cadet on a Merchant ship.
The author’s first book was ‘The Magnificent Mitscher’ which he wrote and got published in 1955. The book didn’t really get Theodore anywhere but that didn’t matter at the time because the author was too busy working as a press agent, a story editor and then an associate producer with Paramount Pictures.
Theodore loved the work. He met numerous interesting people like Clark Gable and Frank Sinatra as a result. The author garnered some success in the film business before finally deciding to give all his time to writing novels, both fiction and nonfiction.
The author’s first children’s novel was ‘The Cay’. ‘The Cay’ is still Theodore’s most popular novel to date. The book explores the trials of a white eleven-year-old boy called Phillip who, after going blind, is shipwrecked on an island with a black sailor called Timothy.
Because Philip was brought up to hate black people, he despises Timothy who is illiterate. However, as the pair fights various challenges in their efforts to survive, Phillip’s prejudice begins to fall away and he is forced to see the humanity of the black man taking care of him.
‘The Cay’ was a game changer when it was first published. One did not see many anti-racism books on the shelves at the time, at least not in the section of fiction. Theodore Taylor set precedence by aiming his book towards children.
The author was always vocal about his disgust for racism. The attitude was sparked by an incident during his childhood when Ku Klux Riders went by his house. The experience terrified him and he made it his objective to use fiction to attack racism.
Theodore determined that children’s books were the best way to get his message across because he believed people his age were too far gone and the only hope the United States had of beating racism was to educate children while they were still so malleable.
‘The Cay’ was extremely popular. It received numerous literary awards and was even made into a television movie featuring James Earl Jones in 1974. ‘The Maldonado Miracle’, another Theodore Taylor book, was also turned into a television movie by Salma Hayek in 2003. The project was Salma’s directorial debut.
Even though ‘The Cay’ was very popular, it was derided by certain groups that took offense with Theodore’s supposedly racist portrayal of Timothy. It wasn’t just his appearance that put some people off but Timothy’s accent.
Attempts were made to ban the book from schools and libraries. But even the demonstrations that followed were incapable of debilitating the popularity of ‘The Cay’ which became a staple in certain classrooms.
Theodore said he based the book on the story of an actual childhood friend who shocked him with the intensity of his hate for black people, hate that had been inculcated into him by his mother.
Theodore went on to write numerous other novels based on his experiences. Because he was always dipping into his life for inspiration, Theodore wasn’t always comfortable with the title of ‘Author’.
Rather, he came to describe himself as a reporter. Because he didn’t have the best imagination, Theodore saw fit to use real-life experiences to create his characters. For that reason, he went on to produce many nonfiction books.
Theodore Taylor’s hobbies included traveling and fishing.
+The Cay
Phillip isn’t the nicest boy. On his way to the United States aboard a Freighter, he thinks nothing of the suffering of others when the Germans invade Curacao. To Phillip, war is a game. The little boy couldn’t wait to witness the mayhem breakout first hand.
Then a torpedo struck his freighter and threw his life into chaos. When Phillip wakes up, he’s bobbing on the sea in a life raft with a black man called Timothy. Phillip’s mother always warned him about black people, so he is pretty wary of his companion.
Once the pair becomes castaways on a small island, Phillip’s prejudices begin falling away.
This is the book that put Theodore Taylor on the map. The book takes place during the Second World War. Phillip is a bratty white boy that is forced to confront his prejudices when a black man shows him kindness.
+Timothy of the Cay
This book is both a sequel and a prequel to the Cay. The Cay was about a young white boy called Phillip who is stranded on an Island with a black man by the names of Timothy.
In the sequel, readers follow Phillip as he is finally rescued. Once home, Phillip begins treatment to restore his eyesight. The boy’s hope is to go back to the Cay and see where he lived with Timothy with his own eyes.
This novel also takes readers into Timothy’s past and shows him as a young man with big dreams. Theodore wrote this sequel after readers wrote to him begging for more stories about Phillip and Timothy.
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