Book: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Mildred D Taylor, 1976

This is a powerful book set in rural Mississipi in the 1930s. Cassie and her family may not have a lot and they might work hard, but at least they have their land. Their family farm cotton on the land, except that taxes and mortgage are beginning to bite and the cotton payments aren't as good as they used to be. So their father is forced to work away. This could be the worst time for this to happen as tensions between the African American and white communities are continuing to rise.

This book has so much heart and soul in it, that it's almost hard to read. You really go along with Cassie through the book, feeling her fear and her indignation. It's a really rich and contradictory world that she lives in, and none of it is watered down for the younger audience. There was a lot in here I didn't really know about before, like the issues confronting share-farmers in the south during this time.

At some points in the book, I actually had to put it down and walk away, because I was so angry with the circumstances that Cassie and the other characters were forced into. My sense of justice, of right and wrong, was really riled up when I was reading, particularly when reading about the differences in education. I know this would be a powerful book for students who have similar ideals of right and wrong.

I would connect this book to Mississippi Trial, 1955, The Rock and the River and One Crazy Summer for the simple fact that this is just one story in a much bigger narrative. I would also connect it to books like Digger J Jones and Who am I? from the Australian My Story series, to point out that injustice is not limited to any one part of the world.

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