The Road to Memphis [Hardcover]

Mildred D. Taylor (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up

Sadistically teased by two white boys in 1940's rural Mississippi, a black youth severely injures one of the boys with a tire iron and enlists Cassie's help in trying to flee the state.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The third novel in a series which started with Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, The Road to Memphis catches up with the Logan family in 1941. Cassie is entering her last year of high school in Jackson, Mississippi and her older brother Stacey is driving his first car. After a family trip to Memphis, a sequence of events, including pregnancy, death and the intrusions of Pearl Harbor and World War II wreaks havoc on the family, threatening to separate them from each other, perhaps forever. Drawing upon their strength as a family and the support of their community, the Logans fight for survival, particularly Cassie, who dreams of becoming a lawyer. The Road to Memphis won the 1991 Coretta Scott King Award.

From Publishers Weekly

In the tradition of Maya Angelou and Alice Walker, Taylor uses powerful, vibrant prose to express the sentiments of a young black Southerner, as the Newbery Medalist continues the story of Cassie Logan. The year is 1941, and 17-year-old Cassie prepares for college by attending high school in Jackson, Miss., where her brother Stacey and friends Little Willie and Moe work in factories. No longer under the protective wing of her parents and Big Ma, Cassie confronts the hostility of the white community and faces new harsh realities including the betrayal of a childhood friend, the outbreak of World War II and an act of violence that forces Moe into hiding. Although Cassie experiences fear and humiliation, her determination to fight for justice remains undaunted. Offering the same captivating characters, honest dialogue and resonant imagery found in Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry and Let the Circle Be Unbroken , this enlightening, moving novel will leave readers yearning for the next installment of the Logan saga. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Hardcover: 290 pages
• Publisher: Dial; 1st edition (June 11, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0803703406
• ISBN-13: 978-0803703407
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (62 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,299,260 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Road to Memphis, February 3, 2006

A Kid's Review

This review is from: The Road to Memphis (Mass Market Paperback)

The setting has a very big impact on the story because it was during the time when African-Americans were mistreated because of their skin color, and they were in the south where it was easier to get away with because the North had been against slavery. Out of all of them, if I had to choose one that was more important then all, it would have to be Strawberry. Strawberry is an average town, no big landmarks or things to make it stand out on the map. On the story map it plays a major roll because it is where part of the climax takes place. (The rest is all on the way to Memphis, hence the title.) Stacey stops to make the final payment on his car. Clawrence goes into the store to get something for his headache. The rest of them (Little, Willie Moe, and Cassie) go to the mechanic to fix the flat. There 3 white men are teasing Moe. He lashes out by hitting them with the crow bar he was using to take the tire off. The rest of the settings include Great Faith and Jackson.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I Loved This Book!!!!!!!!!, March 18, 2001

By 

C. E. Jacobs "Donovan's Momma" (Vista, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Road to Memphis (Mass Market Paperback)

I read this book in one day!! I read "Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry" in 8th grade as a class requirment and I loved it and I started looking for the sequals and prequals a couple of weeks ago. So far I like this one the best. Cassie Logan is 17 and still has a temper when it comes to segragation and one of the young white boys Jeremy Simms cousin Statler is setting eyes on young and beautiful Cassie Logan. an incident happens causing the Moe to flee to Memphis with the help of Cassie, Stacie, Clarence, Little Willie, and Jeremy Simms. On the way Cassie meets a very handsome man in a cafe........... Great book I highly reccomend you read it or get it for your child. Taylor is very good in expressing the hardships of the African American people during that time period.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Road to Memphis, May 16, 2000

By 

spot (San Francisco, California, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Road to Memphis (Mass Market Paperback)

I am in eighth grade at San Francisco Day School. I read both The Road to Memphis by Mildred Taylor and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee for my English class. I found the two books closely related. They are both about a community in a racist time period and how it survives, or attempts to survive the hardships it suffers in a short period. The Road to Memphis is about a black community in the 1940's. The main character, Cassie, is a young black lady whose core group of family and friends is torn apart by several incidents over a three day period. Cassie's dream was to go to law school and become a lawyer. She thought that the court was a fair place where everyone, including blacks, were treated equally. This is the same belief Atticus and his family had in To Kill a Mockingbird before the Tom Robinson trial, when they lost faith in the whole judicial system. Unfortunately, a "fair" court does not make up for the unfair community and population running the court. Cassie's community was split up by racial slurs, death, and the start of World War Two. I thought that The Road to Memphis did a superb job of illustrating what life was like for a black lady in a time when neither ladies nor blacks were highly respected. The novel also showed how much your life can change in a very short time period. In the three days of turmoil Cassie found out how harsh this world was. She was harassed by several white men and lost four of her closest companions to death, or to the misuse of the power of the white community. It was disturbing how in three tragedy filled days, a young lady's life can be ruined, and the cards containing the future of a community can be shuffled so thoroughly. To Kill a Mockingbird also did an outstanding job of portraying the harshness of being black at that time. Although the spotlight was on a white family, Harper Lee was using that position to go inside a white community and write about their feelings toward blacks. The Tom Robinson trial was a good example of how a black person's life can be ruined by the corrupt, white dominated court.