Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry – A Book Review

By Simran Jayasinghe

RollOfThunderBookCoverThe book “Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry” is written by Mildred D. Taylor. This book is a wonderful story written in 1977. The book is mainly about the Logan family, an African American family of seven who live in a town called Strawberry, Mississippi, during the Great Depression. The narrator of the story is Cassie Logan, a nine year old fourth grader. Cassie’s siblings are an older brother named Stacey, and two younger brothers, Christopher-John and Clayton-Chester. Cassie is just beginning to realize the dangers of being a different color. For example, there is a school bus driver who would always swerve on purpose just to try and hit the kids with the bus while the kids were waiting at the bus stop. The book describes many other examples of how life is dangerous for african americans in those days. Cassie doesn’t like how she has to treat some white children. Cassie has to address some white children very formally. For example, she had to call Lillian and Jeremy, two white children in the book, Ms. Lilian Simms or Mr. Jeremy Simms as if they were grownups. Her mother says that there isn’t anything she can do about it.

In the story the Wallaces live in the same town as the Logan’s. The Wallaces are ruthless. The leader of the Wallace family is a terrible man called Kaleb Wallace. One day they hurt T.J. Avery, another African American character in the book, and broke a few of his ribs. The Wallaces hurt innocent people in brutal ways that are really terrifying. They bother the Logans and the other african american families. When the Wallaces hurt Stacey, Cassie’s father has to start a wildfire as a distraction. The book describes how people like the Wallaces hurt african american people like the Logan family. Cassie’s family goes through a lot of suffering but they stick together.

The author expresses the feeling the Logans must have had in a very exciting way through Cassie and her family. On a scale of 1 to 10 I would rate this book a 10. The story is sad because it describes how people get hurt, exciting because it talks about what the Logan family had to go through and how they survived, and terrifying because it talks about how people hurt the Logan family. You will be stuck to this book for days and will not want to put it down.

If you want to buy the book, check it out on Amazon.

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