Title: Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry
Author: Mildred D. Taylor
Genre: Historical Fiction 
Awards: Newbery Medal 
Age Group: 10-15

Summary:
The book is about a family living in the South, going thru hard times, and suffering racism. The mother is a teacher, father works for the railroad and is always away working, so one of the father's friends and farm hands lives with them for added protection since a family was burned to death by white men for no apparent reason. The white men who did the burning, ended up being the Wallace's, who owns the store that the blacks buy from for all of their needs. Cassie's mama starts a boycott of the store and it doesn't go over to well. She looses her teaching job, they have to pay he bank imminently for the land that they own, which is very uncommon for blacks to own land during that time, and the father gets shot in the leg coming for the next town buying supplies from another store. T.J., one of the children's friends that they really don't like, gets involved with two horrible white boys and starts getting into all kinds of trouble. T.J. and the white boys rob a store, and T.J. ends up killing the man. He runs and ask for help from Cassie's and her brothers to help get him home. They get him home, but white men show up and drag him and his family out of the house and get the lynching ready. The white men think that T.J. was with two other black boys so they say they are going to hang Cassie's daddy and her uncle hammer as well. Lighting strikes the ground and gives her dad an idea, he sets his beloved land on fire to stop the lynching and all the men run to put the fire out. T.J. ends up in jail, and Cassie crying for him and her family's land.

Teacher Evaluation:
This book gave me mixed feelings. Good feelings for the blacks owning a larger piece of land in that time, them being able to pay their debts, for being able to come together and try o boycott the racist white store, and for being able to stop the lynching. Bad feelings because of the burnings of the blacks, the power that they wanted to have in trying to take their land, and the set up of T.J. just to try and lynch him. I wouldnt have this book in my classroom because its for older students and its not a conversation i would want to have with my students.

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