Hey Bloggers! I'm excited to have my first two followers! I'd love to hear about what you are reading. Right now my class and I are reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor. We are all enjoying this very powerful story. To be honest, I wasn't really looking forward to reading this book. I don't like to read stories that might be sad. I am also rather picky about the historical fiction books that I read. I'm very interested in certain time periods in history and not so much in others. However, I have been very pleasantly surprised by this book. It's VERY good! My students really seem to like it too.
The book is told from Cassie's point of view - a young, black girl growing up in Mississippi in the early 1930s. Cassie's family faces poverty and racism. The Depression occurred during this time and the Civil Rights Act has not been passed. The language of the story is harsh in places and some of the slang can be challenging to read, but the characters are very vivid and real. The story itself is very emotional and it's the type of book that you don't want to stop reading. I also love reading it aloud. Each character has such a strong voice and personality.
I did a little bit of research on Mildred Taylor and found out that this book is actually one in a series. I didn't know that. Ms. Taylor wrote several books on the Logan family: The Land, The Well, Song of the Trees, Roll of Thunder, Let the Circle Be Unbroken, and Road to Memphis.
Here is a link to a biographical essay about Mildred Taylor: http://www.edupaperback.org/showauth.cfm?authid=75
Here is a link to more detail on her books:
http://www.teachervision.fen.com/reading/multicultural-literature/31177.html
Well, that's it for now. I'm off to watch Eclipse (movie based on the book of the same name by Stephenie Meyers) with some of my friends. I'd love to hear from those of you who have read Roll of Thunder. What do you think? Have you read any of the other books about the Logan family? Are they as good as ROT?
Who is your favorite Logan character?
For those of you who haven't read it, what are you reading right now? How is it? Do you recommend it?
Take care and keep reading!
Mrs. H
My favorite character is Little Man :). I like how he ALWAYS wants to be clean, its cute... I just finished this book today after testing and agree it is very powerful. But i do really want to know what happens exactly to T.J. I may just read Let The Circle Be Unbroken. It sounds interesting!!!
ReplyDeleteI like Little Man too. I like his indignation towards TJ. He is just outraged that TJ thinks they are buddies. It's funny.
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking about reading Let the Circle be Unbroken also. I'm a little worried though. I have a hard time with sad stories. That's one of the reasons I don't like to read realistic books as much as fantasy novels.
Has reading this book changed your outlook on life at all? What did you learn from reading it?
Yes, this book has changed my outlook on life cause I never thought things got THAT harsh and hard for black people back then. I've always thought that after slavery was banned that everything was fine... I learned a lot from reading this. That is probably going to be one of the longest parts in the ROT activity book thing we are doing. We finished this book really fast!!
ReplyDeleteI know!! I thought it would take much longer to read.
ReplyDeleteEspecially cause the other classes took a long time...
ReplyDeleteDid it seem like we finished faster than they did? I didn't notice. I think we were all just really absorbed in it :-) It is a very eye-opening book. The Watsons Go to Birmingham is another book that is along the lines of Roll of Thunder. It is set a little later in time - the 50s I think. But it also shows the struggles black people faced leading into the Civil Rights Movement. Unfortunately, prejudice didn't end with slavery. It took a long time for the rights black people had on paper to be a reality in their lives. And still today there is racism and inequality.
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