Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor

Good, Interesting Bookby Anonymous

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May 12, 2009: This book is very interesting. Like most books it has some boring points, but once you start reading, you can't stop! Once one exiting point ends, the book isn't over. In one, or two chapters there will be another exiting point. It is very exiting, and is one of the best books I have ever read.

This book was wonderful!by Taylor_Collins

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April 18, 2009: The Logan family lives in rural Mississippi in the 1920's-30's, during a socially tough time for blacks. They work extremely hard to keep the small piece of farmland they own. All the other families in the area are sharecroppers on Granger land. Granger is a very rich white man who cheats his sharecroppers of their money and rights. The Logan's are extremely fortunate to own their own land. Throughout the book, many black characters experience racial injustice.

The author's purpose for writing this book was to inform the reader's reading the book today how hard it was for people back during The Great Depression. Many of the events and themes are adult in nature, but the book is told in the first person narrative perspective of Cassie Logan, a fourth-grade girl. The novel won the 1977 Newbery Medal and is considered to be among the greatest children's novels of all time. I would recommend this book to children in 5th grade to middle school and up because this story will help children understand how it was for other children their age back in those days and what they had to go through.

The overarching story of Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry describes the success of the Logan family. The Logan family is successful in maintaining its hold on its farmland, in fighting back against racism; finally, the Logan family is successful in that it survives. Papa, Mama, and Big Ma are careful to teach their children the values that make this kind of dignity and success possible. As Cassie, the narrator, grows up over the course of the novel, she must learn to reconcile the pure streak of pride that she inherits from her Uncle Hammer with the more rational but still dignified approaches to racism adopted by her parents. She must learn that racism is something to fight when possible and endure when necessary.