Customer Reviews

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

5 star:		(291)
4 star:		(107)
3 star:		(54)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(31)

 

 

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's Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is a beautifully told tale spoken with the fine voice of its young narrator, Cassie Logan. It is the story of the Logan family and their struggle to maintain both their small piece of land and their dignity in one tumultuous year, two things not permitted a black family in Mississippi in the early decaces of this century. The author brilliantly captures the times of which she writes but, even more important, captures the people she writes about. There are not characters here who can be simply called victims or survivors or fighters or any other single term. These are fully developed personalities, particulary the children, that speak with authentic and complicated voices and spool out a tale that is heart breaking with equal parts despair and hope. A wonderful book for children.

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.

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.

I read Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor years ago as a college student studying to be a teacher. Reading it again with my sixth grade students reinforced my belief that Mildred Taylor is perhaps one of the best children's authors we have today. Everyone from age 10 to 99 should read this book. The story centers around the Logan family, an African American family struggling to survive in the turmoil of the 1930's. There are many reasons I love this book. The characters are well developed and believable. We come to know Cassie Logan, the main character and narrator of the book, as she confronts the harsh realities of discrimination. Mildred Taylor created an extremely likable character of Jeremy, a white boy who rejects his own family's behavior toward the Logan family. The plot unfolds slowly, almost deliberately, to provide us with the time to prepare for the stunning climax. One of the most memorable scenes is when the Logan children visit Mr. Berry, a man badly burned by three white men simply because of the color of his skin. Mildred Taylor's description is often difficult to read and yet necessary in order to gain a better understanding of the distruction hatred causes. Although I've never felt this kind of discrimination firsthand, I am grateful to Mildred Taylor for giving me the opportunity to open my eyes to the dark realities that existed back then and indeed, still exist today. Read this book slowly, carefully and again and again. You will not be the same after reading this extraordinary novel.

This book is so excellent that I have no idea where to start. I don't think schools adequately teach pupils about segregation-era America and how awful it was. When I was in 4th grade our class read this and most everyone was brought to tears. The story is written so well that you know all the charecters and what they do, but it doesn't bore you with details. This book shows the real side of segregation and how awful it was. I am very surprised it has never been made into a movie.

Mildred Taylor would be considered one of our top African American women writers today. This novel begins a series of the life of the Logan family whose neighbors are all sharecroppers. The Logan family is fortunate to own land, purchased by a most focused and ambitious ancestor following the Civil War (and the subject of her later also fabulous book, THE LAND.

Readers meet Cassie, a fiesty young woman and her siblings as they navigate the segregated and unjust South. Schooling is one topic that arises when, for example, the bus carrying the White children to their school deliberately sprays roadway mud on the Logan children making their long walk to their own school (Black children are not allowed bus transport) and how enraged some students become when their "new" schoolbooks issued by their teacher are actually very old discards from the Whites only school. This novel is a remarkable depiction of the era. I have never met a student (or teacher) who was not moved by this novel.

Based on Taylor's own family history, sequels include LET THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN (which deals with issues of voting, among others), and THE ROAD TO MEMPHIS which brings the Logan family, grown, into the Civil Rights movement.

Wendy C. Kasten, Ph.D., Professor
Kent State University, Kent, Ohio
Co-Author, LIVING LITERATURE (with Kristo & McClure, 2005, Pearson Education).Living Literature: Using Children's Literature to Support Reading and Language Arts

I do not know how people don't like it.This book is great, although there are some dull parts. It may not be action packed but it isn't completely boring. The way it is written makes the characters come alive. Here is a summary:

The book takes place in a small country town that's population mostly consists of share croppers and cotton farmers. The story centers around a black family, the Logan which consists of three boys, a girl, the parents and their feisty grandmother, Big Ma. Since they own four hundred acres of land they have it quite a bit better than most people and are more rebellious to the racist white people. The narrator is the Logan's only girl Cassie. Over the course of the book Cassie is shoved from the umbrella that has shielded her from the cruel out side world. During a routine trip to a near by town. While being there for the first time Cassie accidentally bumps into a white girl and is shoved down by the girl's father. This event brings down Cassie's safe world and lets hatred run wild. She witnesses the night riders, wrecks a white bus, and watches as a thirteen year old is lynched. This is one book that is hard to put down and shows the worst of racism.

Now you know what it is about so get up and start ROLL OF THUNDER, HEAR MY CRY!

This is such a great book! It really opened my eyes to the terryfing truth of racisum.This book will have you laughing and crying. Cassie Logan and her family struggle through everything TOGETHER. It will really open your eyes!