Theodore Taylor Books in Order

Taylor's first book is a biography of Admiral Marc Mitscher, a pioneer of naval aviation and a key American commander in the Pacific war. It follows the life behind the nickname and the hard decisions of carrier warfare.

John Amber makes his living in the shadows, retrieving people from places where ordinary rules do not apply. When he is hired to bring home a wealthy American girl condemned as a spy in Communist China, the job turns deadly.

When a German attack sinks his ship in World War II, eleven-year-old Phillip ends up stranded on a tiny cay with Timothy, an old West Indian sailor. Blindness, survival, and prejudice all become part of the fight to stay alive.

Taylor reconstructs the attack on Pearl Harbor with close attention to intelligence failures, military planning, and personal bravery. It is a fast-moving history that helps younger readers grasp how December 7, 1941 unfolded.

Taylor traces the road to American independence through Williamsburg, Virginia, showing how daily life, local politics, and big ideas collided in 1776. It is a brisk history for younger readers with a strong sense of place.

On the Outer Banks in the late 1800s, young Ben O'Neal rescues a mute English girl from a shipwreck. As she becomes part of his household, questions about who she is, and where she belongs, begin to change both their lives.

On the Outer Banks in the late 1800s, young Ben O'Neal rescues a mute English girl from a shipwreck. As she becomes part of his household, questions about who she is, and where she belongs, begin to change both their lives.

Taylor looks at war through young eyes, focusing on how fear, separation, and violence reshape everyday life for children. It is less about battlefield glory than about the lasting human cost carried by the young.

Ben and Teetoncey have found a fragile place together on the Banks, but her past is not done with her. Outside pressures, family loyalties, and the pull of the sea threaten to separate them.

Ben and Teetoncey have found a fragile place together on the Banks, but her past is not done with her. Outside pressures, family loyalties, and the pull of the sea threaten to separate them.

Focusing on the doomed convoy PQ-17, Taylor follows Allied merchant ships carrying supplies from Iceland toward Russia through Arctic waters. Bombers, submarines, cold, and confusion make this a grim and gripping wartime account.

Written with Louis Irigaray, this memoir looks back on a Basque boyhood in California's San Joaquin Valley. Sheep camps, family work, and immigrant life give the book a strong sense of place and memory.

Ben and Teetoncey finally head to sea, each chasing something urgent, he a missing brother, she a way out of a forced return to England. Their voyage turns into the hardest test of the trilogy.

Ben and Teetoncey finally head to sea, each chasing something urgent, he a missing brother, she a way out of a forced return to England. Their voyage turns into the hardest test of the trilogy.

Taylor tells the life story of composer Jule Styne, from child prodigy to Broadway and Hollywood hitmaker. The book tracks the man behind songs and shows that became part of American popular music.

Taylor recounts the Battle of Midway from both American and Japanese viewpoints, showing how leadership, luck, and timing changed the Pacific war. It is clear, direct military history with the tension of a novel.

Helen adores her Labrador, Friar Tuck, so when he starts going blind, she refuses to let his world shrink. Their struggle over safety, freedom, and loyalty becomes a heartfelt story about growing up and not giving up.

This history follows the daring German dash up the English Channel by the Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, and Prinz Eugen. Taylor turns a complicated naval operation into a tense story of risk, speed, and British frustration.

Fifteen-year-old Peg Toland and her father expect adventure on a remote island in the Sea of Cortez. Instead they find themselves trapped in a brutal fight for survival that forces both of them to ask what they would do to save each other.

Set on a remote island shaped by rockets, secrecy, and danger, this science-fiction adventure mixes technical intrigue with survival pressure. Taylor keeps the focus on what happens when ordinary people are pulled into something much bigger.

Taylor leans toward mystery in this strange, atmospheric story, where elusive cats and human secrets are closely linked. The tension builds through suspicion, pursuit, and the feeling that something uncanny is just out of reach.

After losing his mother and being separated from his father, twelve-year-old Jose Maldonado is barely surviving when a wound leaves blood on a church statue. The supposed miracle sparks a frenzy that could save him, or destroy him.

Orphaned at fourteen, Susan Carlisle inherits a home, a flock of sheep, and crushing debt. She heads west to California with a risky plan, meeting danger, hardship, and unexpected love along the trail.

Fourteen-year-old Jamie helps his father capture a killer whale off the coast of Vancouver, planning to sell it to a marine park. As the animal suffers and public pressure grows, Jamie must decide what doing the right thing really costs.

After his daughter is abducted and murdered, former Marine Cole Hickel becomes obsessed with the man shielded from justice by diplomatic protection. His hunt for revenge turns into a hard, dangerous crossing between grief and violence.

Taylor retells the chase and destruction that followed the clash between HMS Hood and the Bismarck. The book brings the scale, shock, and urgency of one of World War II's best-known naval battles into clear focus.

Left in charge of his family's California big-cat preserve while his parents are away, Ben Jepson finds the animals under attack by a night sniper. To protect them, he has to solve a deadly mystery before more cats die.

Tuck returns in a sequel that revisits Helen and her beloved dog as they face fresh changes and new tests of patience. Taylor keeps the focus on loyalty, resilience, and the bond between a girl and her dog.

After blinding a Mafia hit man in self-defense, Vegas showgirl Molly Bodden goes on the run with former football star Epp Watts. The chase stretches from city to city as the wounded killer closes in for revenge.

Chip Clewt, the local boy everyone calls weird, is determined to defend the Powhatan Swamp and the animals that live there. When violence erupts, his stubborn sense of right and wrong puts him squarely in danger.

Maria is tired of watching wealthy families dominate her town's Christmas parade. By entering her own poor Mexican American family in the float contest, she sets off a warm story about pride, courage, and the true spirit of the season.

This companion to The Cay looks backward into Timothy's youth and forward into Phillip's life after rescue. It deepens the bond between the two characters and asks what home, memory, and freedom really mean.

Merchant seaman Sully Jordan survives repeated attacks by a feared German U-boat in the North Atlantic. As World War II closes in around him, the hunt between sailor and submarine commander turns personal.

Set around the Bikini Atoll nuclear tests, this novel follows Marshall Island families forced to watch outside powers reshape their world. Taylor brings the atomic age down to human scale, with fear, wonder, and loss all mixed together.

This collection gathers eight sea stories, including the title tale of a girl trapped inside an overturned sailboat after a killer wave. Across the book, Taylor returns to the ocean as a place of skill, fear, and sudden crisis.

This biography tells how Jesse Leroy Brown, born to Mississippi sharecroppers, became the first Black Navy carrier pilot. Taylor follows his fight against racism, his flying career, and the combat service that ended too soon.

In coastal Virginia in 1914, eleven-year-old Evan, who lives with a clubfoot, waits for the grandfather he has never known. The visit stirs old family stories and gives Evan a new picture of courage and belonging.

This brief picture book greets the Arctic through its animals, weather, and changing seasons. It is a quiet introduction to the far north, built more around observation and atmosphere than plot.

Ben Jepson is again left to run his parents' California big-cat preserve, this time with enemies circling on all sides. A body in a jaguar cage and the kidnapping of his favorite tiger force him into a deeper mystery.

In 1935, lonely Jon Jeffers lives on a tiny island off San Francisco with his lighthouse keeper father. When a mysterious magician teaches him to fly, the miracle brings attention, trouble, and more than he bargained for.

Taylor's autobiography covers his years in newspapers, wartime service, Hollywood, and the long road to becoming a full-time author. It reads like a working writer's scrapbook, full of jobs, travel, and hard-earned stories.

Taylor retells the legend of Billy the Kid through a young person's close view of outlaw life in the Southwest. The result is a lean frontier adventure about violence, loyalty, and the gap between myth and reality.

In 1868, Inuit brothers Alika and Sulu are carried away on a broken ice floe and swept south through the Greenland Strait. Cold, hunger, and polar bears make their long drift a gripping survival story.