top of page

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry


Genre: Historical / Classic

Book Type: Audio

Author: Mildred D. Taylor

Narrators: Lynne Thigpen & Jacqueline Woodson

Pages / Length: 288 pages / 8 hours and 28 minutes

Publisher: Puffin Books (October 1, 1991)

Book Description:

An ALA Notable Book, A New York times Book Review Best Children’s Books, 1970-1980 Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is a 1976 novel by Mildred D. Taylor. The novel won the 1977 Newbery Medal and is considered to be among the greatest children’s novels of all time. Its sequel, Let the Circle Be Unbroken, was released in 1981. Why is the land so important to Cassie’s family? It takes the events of one turbulent year-the year of the night riders and the burnings, the year a white girl humiliates Cassie in public imply because she is black-to show Cassie that having a place of their own is the Logan family’s lifeblood. It is the land that gives the Logans their courage and pride-no matter how others may degrade them, the Logans possess something no one can take away. Taylor writes not with rancor or bitterness of indignities, but with pride, strength, and respect for humanity.


Thoughts:

Sweet Audio, where have you been all my life?! It’s allowing me to get through so many more books, which makes me so happy!


This story follows the Logan Family after the end of slavery as they fight to keep their land, but are dealt with a lot of difficult times. This was a tough book to read. I got angered, I cried, and then I’d get angry again. My heart ached for their family through all of their battles, but I absolutely loved Cassie and the fight she had in her to promote change. She was such a clever girl with an objective eye.


My daughter was reading this for school and I wanted to read it along with her and I am so glad that I did! This book lead to us having great conversations around racism and was very eye opening for her to see a darker part of our history. While we still have a lot of work to do, I’m glad she struggled connecting to this book and that she couldn’t imagine many of the issues touched on. It was a difficult conversation, but also one I felt needed to be discussed about the progress we’ve made, and the work we still have to do. This is part of a series, and I had not read the first ones and found it easy to follow as a stand alone book. Highly recommend and very age appropriate for middle school-aged kids.


Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Comments


bottom of page