June 1921 to October 2006

During the Korean War, in the 1950's, he found himself stationed with the naval reserve in the Caribbean. His unit provided hurricane relief on many of the smaller islands. Here he found his settings and conflicts for The Cay. "I got the idea for The Cay from Coast Guard research on an adult book." The two main characters for The Cay were modeled after real people, and the plot is based on a true incident. It took three weeks to write The Cay.

Official Name: Curacao Population: 192,000 Capital City: Willemstad Language: Dutch (official), English (widely spoken), Spanish, others Official Currency: Netherlands Antillean Guilder Religions: Baptist, Protestant, Catholic, others Latitude/Longitude 12 10N, 68 93W

A cay (also spelled key, but both are pronounced alike) is a small, low island consisting mostly of sand or coral. The word is used almost exclusively in the Caribbean, though it is sometimes used in the context of other tropical environments, such as the Great Barrier Reef, Belize Barrier Reef, and especially in the Florida Keys.

Sand cays are formed when tidal action, wind and sea birds deposit coral debris and sand onto reef flats over a long period of time. These deposits usually occur on the leeward side of the reef, but occasionally made on the windward side.

Weather affects the formation of cays greatly; large tides would bring much more debris onto the cay and thus make it larger, while a hurricane could completely obliterate a cay.

"To Dr. King's dream, which can only come true if the very young know and understand."

Themes: 1.Coming of Age 2.Evils of Racism 3.Literacy versus Illiteracy 4.Friendship

Westpunt Fishing Village

Willemstad Harbor

Punda Waterfront

View of Otrabanda from the Emma Bridge

Willemstad, Curacaoview of Punda from the Emma Bridge

In Otrabanda looking towards Punda

The main shopping street of Punda

Mansion in Scharloo

Punda

Langosta

Moray Eel

The Blue-footed Booby

I have seen war. I hate war. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, World War II

World War II
1939-45 (U.S. involved, 1941-46)

U.S. troops engaged: 16,112,566 American casualties: 291,557

The U.S. joined the Allies (Britain, France, and the USSR) to fight the Axis Powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan) after the U.S. forces were attacked by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor in 1941.

On June 4, 1944 the Allies launch the Normandy invasion on the beaches of northern France, commonly referred to as DDay. Germany surrendered in 1945, and Japan surrendered later that same year, after the U.S. dropped the atomic bomb on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

One of the most horrific chapters of the war was the Holocaust, the systematic annihilation of about 6 million Jews, as well as millions of others who did not conform to Nazi Germanys racist ideals. This was the largest and most expensive war ever, as well as the most difficult to settle. The world remained politically unstable, major cities had been turned to rubble by bombings, and modern weapons combined with Germany's attempt to exterminate entire religious and ethnic groups brought death to millions of people.