Author: Mildred D. Taylor
Illustrator: Cover by Jerry Pinkney
Readability Scores: Interest level=4-6, Grade Level Equivalent=6.9, DRA=60, Lexile=920L, Guided Reading=W
Genre: Fiction
Subgenre: Historical fiction, classics
Theme: Equality, civil rights
Primary and Secondary Characters: Primary=Cassie, Stacey, Little Man, Christopher John, Secondary=T.J., Papa, Mama, Big Ma, Jeremy
Awards: 1977 Newbery Medal winner, winner of the Pacific Norwest Young Readers Award
Date of Publication: 1976
Publishing Company: Novel Units Inc.
ISBN Number: 9781561375257
Summary: This book is set in rural Mississippi in the early 1930s. The central characters are all members of the Logan family. They are lucky because they own farming land instead of sharecropping like their neighbors. This also leads to several struggles as the family tries to pay the mortgage and taxes each year. The Granger family wants the land back since it originally belonged to them prior to the Civil War. Mr. Granger tries to buy the land, but the Logan family knows its all they have. Cassie and Stacey are the two oldest of the Logan children, and they are faced with struggles as they learn that civil rights does not exist in rural Mississippi. This is a dramatic coming of age story, in which the primary characters struggle with the unfairness of racial inequality. They are faced with the cruelty of the time when they see neighbors burned and friends beaten. Through each struggle, they are taught the importance of family and what it means to own their own land. A fire threatens to destroy the cotton crop, and the Logan children finally understand what Papa, Mama, and Big Ma have been trying to teach them about life and equality.
Applications for Teaching: This is a wonderful book to accompany lessons on the events leading up to the Civil Rights Movement as well as lessons discussing the inequalities faced by African American families living in the South following the Reconstruction. This book would be best suited for middle school students due to the violence and mature themes it contains.
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