Michael Boatman has appeared on Broadway in Master Harold and the Boys. On television, he had regular roles on China Beach, Arli$$, and Spin City, which earned him two NAACP Image Award nominations.

Phillip's mother didn't like black people. "They're different," she had told him. Phillip had never believed her before, but now . . . After all, Timothy was different. He was huge and old, and to Phillip, he seemed ugly. But after the Germans torpedoed the freighter on which Phillip and his mother were traveling during wartime, the boy found himself dependent on the old Wesst Indian man. Following the shipwreck, just the two of them were cast up on the barren little Carribean island, and a crack on the head had left Phillip blind.

Their struggle for survival and Phillip's efforts to adjust to blindness and to understand this dignified, wise, and loving companion make this a memorable tale.