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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
stirring and profound,
By
This review is from: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (Paperback)
My fourth grade teacher, Ms. Bultheis, gave this book to me as a going away present before my family and I moved to Africa. A gift from a beloved teacher is always unforgettable to a child, but this book truly made an indelible mark on my young, impressionable mind. Because variety in reading materials was so scarce in the interior where we lived, I read this book no less than fifty times from ages 10-14. I came to anticipate the words on each page like a familiar friend and became fully acquainted with the amazing family characters that are portrayed within its pages. I believe that Mildred D. Taylor is an artist with words. Her writing is powerful and haunting. It has been my joy to share this book with my own children who have also come to love Papa, Mama, Big Ma, Mr. Morrison, Stacey, Christopher John, Little Man, and Cassie Logan. I imagined myself as one of their family, or at least, a very close friend.
The story takes the reader through a year of nine-year-old Cassie Logan's life. Living in Mississippi in the 1930s, life was often cruel and unjust to Cassie and her African American family and friends. I felt the ache of longing for justice over the fact that Cassie and her brothers had to walk several miles to school while the white children taunted them from their bus, whose driver daily tried to run Cassie and her brothers into the muddy, water-filled gullies along the side of the road. I laughed with delight at the siblings' clever and successful plot of revenge against their taunters. I shivered with horror over the barbaric act carried out by the men who burned members of the Berry family over a false accusation and got away with it. I relished the way the Logans truly loved each other and took care of one another, grateful that I could relate in my own relationships with my parents and siblings. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It is wrapped up in the nostalgia of my childhood when I was just beginning to think for myself. It greatly influenced me. I am always looking for thought-provoking, noble literature to read to my own children. It is a wonderful book to read out loud to children ages eight and older. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is a masterpiece of storytelling at its very best.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Roll of Sadness, Hear Me Cry,
This review is from: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (Paperback)
If you are a sensitive person, this story might be difficult for you to read. I thought it was really good, but there were many times I felt sad and angry at the situations that went on. The family in this story is very close to one another. They don't have much, but they are happy with the things they do have. The young girl in the story is a nine-year old named Cassie Logan. She always stands up for what she believes in and she is always looking out for her brother. But it's hard for her to get her voice heard because she an African-American and the story take place in the 1930's. There are many rude people in the town she lives in, and they don't care who they hurt. The adults in the story try to protect all the children by not letting them see what's going on with all of racism problems, but the children know what's going on. They get slapped at school for things that aren't their fault.
This story was very interesting to read, but sometimes it was hard to follow when they were talking to one another. A lot of the dialogue was slang words and sentences. There were times when I had to re-read the sentence to realize what the author was saying. But after reading this, I would recommend it to others.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Important and Unforgettable Book,
This review is from: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (Paperback)
Somedays I like to plop on a sofa and read formulaic books that are about as memorable as toilet paper and require as much thought as an amusement park. Other days I prefer to stretch out with multifacted books into which their authors have obviously divulged their souls. While such complex fare requires me to slow down the way one does for a yellow light and to put forth the effort one might for a first date, they also linger with me and ultimately alter my perspective on life. When in the mood for THAT type of book, pick up Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor.
The Logan children (Stacey, Cassie, Christopher John, and Little Man) and T.J. are friends. Yet if one's main buddy is an individual like T.J., one might think twice about whether to even have friends. T. J. knows all the town gossip and teases the Logan children with his knowledge of it, until they find themselves eager to hear even the most horrific tale. At times, it seems that his only reason for being their friend is that their mother is a teacher and he seeks to pry test answers from them. In contrast, Jeremy risks his family's wrath to hang out with the Logans. He invites them to visit when family is away. At Christmas, instead of tricking Stacey out of a much-needed new winter coat the way T.J. did, Jeremy gives a hand-made recorder to Stacy. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is about friendship. Cassie and Lillian Jean have never been friends. They do not walk together, talk with one another, or attend the same school. They probably could have neatly avoided each other except for that dastardly visit to the dinky town of Strawberry. There, Cassie accidentally banged into Lillian Jean, who demanded Cassie to kneel and apologize. Cassie submitted to Lillian Jean under duress of adult pressure, but revenge would be hers in time. In the same way, every morning the Logans had to jump out of the way of a school bus to avoid being run down, but revenge would be theirs in time. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is about bullies. The book is also about family. The children dress up and walk an hour to school by direct order of their parents. They help maintain the family farm by daily doing chores. They even retire to bed when instructed. Despite moments of disobedience, they are respectful and good children. Their parents both work, so that the Logans might keep their home and land. The mother makes rain gear out of calf skins. She also defends her children when they protest against prejudice at school. The father, partly out of fear for their safety, forbids the children to shop at the Wallace store. They are caring parents. Already, it should be clear how Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry is not your average children's book. Yet the book is about even more than relationships. It is also about social injustice. Jeremy risks punishment when he walks with the Logans, because his family is white and the Logans are black. Lillian Jean demands Cassie to kneel, because she feels in being white she is superior to Cassie who is black. The land is important to the Logans, because many blacks do not have land and so have to work as sharecroppers to whites. Some of T. J's. tales involve beatings and burnings of blacks. Ultimately, to be black meant to fear that those tales could become about oneself. Unlike most books about social injustice, which tend to read like broccoli that has been smothered with peanut butter, characters and settings have not been sacrificed for the sake of the message. Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry is more than a tract. Underneath its layers, you will not only find the story of an African-American family in Mississippi during the Great Depression, but also universal values of family, friendship, loyalty, integrity, independence, and choice. As such, Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry is an important and unforgettable book.
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