Publication Date: 1969
Reading Level: Lexile Measure 860L, Scholastic Guided Reading Level V
Interest Level: Grades 6 - 8
Major Awards: 1970 Jane Addams Children's Book Award
Number of Pages: 105 pages
Approximate Word Count: 25,810 words
Audible Book Length: 2 hrs and 58 mins
Book Themes: Friendship, Overcoming Obstacles, Personal Growth, Race, Blindness
Genre: historical fiction novel for young adults
Setting: February 1942 on the island of Curacao, Dutch West Indies
Important Quote:
Wanting to hear it from Timothy, I asked him why there were different colors of skin, white and black, brown and red, and he laughed back, "Why b'feesh different color, or flower b'different color? I true don' know, Phill-eep, but I true tink beneath d'skin is all d'same.
First Line: Like silent, hungry sharks that swim in the darkness of the sea, the German submarines arrived in the middle of the night.
Point of View: in first person from Phillip's perspective
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