Mildred D. Taylor's Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry

Begin: 04/15/07
End: 04/18/07
Quality: Ten out of Ten
Reason: Newbry.
Genre: Children's Literature. Fiction. African-American Literature.
Original Language: English.
Date of Publication: 1976.
Fog Index: 7.0/ 91% are harder.
Flesch Index: 76.9/92% are harder.
Flesch-Kincaid Index: 5.3/91% are harder.
Complex Words: 6%/91% have more.
Number: Twice?
Synopsis: This is the story of a black family living in deppression-era Mississipi and struggling with poverty and racism. The narrator, nine year old cassie logan, comes to discover a lot about the world she lives in during the course of this story, which takes place over about a year.
Thoughts:

Brilliant. I forget exactly how much I fucking loved this story. It's almost painful how poigant and moving it is. How much you grow to love and adore these characters. Cassie, Little Man, Big Ma, Papa, Mama, Mr. Morrison (who i always imagine as somehow related to Toni Morrison for some reason.)

I am not sure what it is about African American Literature that has such an appeal to me. Is it the same thing which draws me to African American music? Perhaps. Something to be looked into.

The story flows quite quickly. It's almost a three hundred page book but you get so connected to the characters and so concerned about what is going to happen that it just flies by and then you long for more.

Their is just something so powerful about this close knit family doing anything they can to not only hang unto their land and their dignity but also to try and improve things for their neighbors and friends.

I am at a loss to talk about it right now. I am not sure why so I am going to leave off here. (I guess my literature degree really is good for nothing)

"You see that fig tree over yonder, Cassie? Them other trees all around...that oak and walnut, they're a lot bigger and they take up more room and give so much shade they almost overshadow that little ole fig. But that fig's got roots that run deep, and it belongs in that yard as much as that oak and walnut. It keeps on blooming, bearing good fruit year after year, knowing all the time it'll never get as big as them other trees. Just keeps on growing and doing what it gotta do. It don't give up. It give up, it'll die. There's a lesson to be learned from that little tree, Cassie girl,'cause we're like it. We keep doing what we gotta, and we don't give up. We can't"
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