Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (Puffin Modern Classics)

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In a word I can describe this book as amazing. This book is about the Logans-a Black family-living in Mississippi in the 1930's who overcome racial segregation and bias, struggle to stand up to their white neighbors, and fight to keep their land. The land is the center of the Logans love toward each other. Their land is what holds the family together and keeps them from spreading apart. The story is written in Cassie's-the main character-point of view and how she sees things. Taylor does a great job in maneuvering Cassie so she can overhear certain conversations that are important to the books development of the conflict, and the resolution. Throughout the novel the Logans go through a Bus accident, a little girl that finally gets her revenge, and a great sacrifice that no one will ever forget. I was introduced to this book when it was assigned as a literature study in my English class. Though I, along with others, groaned when the assignment was made, I have greatly taken that moan back. Once I started, I couldn't stop. The author's supense, humor, setting, and a great use of southern dialect for the dialogue make this book a hard one to put down. Though I have only read this book once, I plan to read it many, many times in the future. Take my advice, this book is unbelivable. Don't let the dust gather on it too much longer; it deserves to be read and cherished.

Teaching in a primarily white school district(which is just a fact, not a problem), I enjoy teaching novels that bring knowledge of various groups' struggles, beliefs, and similarities that lead to the fact that "we are not as different as some choose to think." In teaching Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird, I felt that my students felt sorry for Tom Robinson, but we needed to have a better understanding of where Tom was coming from. The two novels are very similar in settings, themes, point of view being that of a young girl, conflicts, and overall emotional impact they have on their readers. Kids love Little Man's strength that stretches beyond his size. They admire Stacey's confidence and loyalty to his family, friends, and people. Readers view T.J. with hatred, then confusion, and finally sympathy to this lost child...who can be compared with Harper Lee's Tom Robinson. Many of my students can relate to Jeremy Simms, who respects & enjoys the Logan family more than his own. And then there's Cassie, the narrator. Kids find Cassie to be the most complex of the Logans. Taylor presents Cassie as someone who is naive to discrimination(for lack of a better term). Often my students would write that they wished they could jump into the pages of the text and explain to Cassie what was going on so they could save her from further problems, as we see Big Ma do. My kids also wanted to just "give her a big hug." This book is a great read aloud & the sequels to follow are good as well. Let the Circle be Unbroken is #2 and also goes well with Harper's Tom Robinson's fate. The Road to Memphis is #3 and good as well, although I found the first two the best!

There have been so many great reviews for this book, I can't really say much that hasn't been touched on. However, in response to the two reviews before me, I cannot possibly see their point-of-view. Roll of Thunder reads very much like a fourth grader's work, in the sense that the narrator is nine years old. Taylor is *brilliant* at giving Cassie credibility as a narrator and the reader is privileged to see the events of the story through her eyes. I love every page of this book and have read it over again a hundred times. The "slow" opening actually gives us a clear picture of the setting and the character traits of those people who shape Cassie's world. I do not understand how people can not see this. I read this book on my own in third grade, and read it in school in eighth grade, so I think it has a good range of ages. I'm in college and I still like re-reading it. There are a lot of good themes/issues to explore with your kids or students if you read this book with them.

Mildred D. Taylor has given adolescent readers a powerful account of the Great Depression and the economic hardships it placed on many families, particularly blacks. As seen through the eyes of the Logan family, students learn about the inequalities between blacks and whites, beginning with the four Logan children being splattered by mud from a school bus that transported white children only. A further indignity occurs when the Logans are given dirty, tattered textbooks that have been discarded by the school for whites. Much of what Taylor describes in this novel packs a strong punch for adolescents. Further, to fully understand the story's context, students need to understand a good deal of U. S. history, specifically, the Great Depression, the Restoration, the sharecropping system, and segregation practices in the south during this period. Yet, teachers and students who take on the challenge will be well rewarded. Teachers and administrators in the Boston Public Schools have been so impressed by the powerful themes in Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, that they have selected it as one of six core novels for sixth graders as part of the Max Warburg Courage Curriculum. The other five novels are: Taking Sides, Number the Stars, Bridge to Terabithia, So Far from the Bamboo Grove, and Maniac Magee. As with Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, each novel addresses the theme of courage--different types of courage, what it takes to act courageously, and how even small acts of courage can have enormous consequences in everyday life. As an Educational Consultant for the Courage Curriculum, I highly recommend Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. Taylor does not speak down to students. Instead she presents them with genuine characters in a drama that reflects the story-telling tradition she was steeped in as a child.