Mildred Taylor originally did not set out to write a children's book when she wrote "Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry," yet it quickly became a children's classic and classroom staple for young readers. We'll reexamine this iconic work that unflinchingly examines racism as the children and their parents find ways to push back against the injustices of the Jim Crow South. Our hosts discuss what actually makes a book a children's book, try to guess how much things actually cost in the 1930s (*insert obligatory "how much could a banana cost, $10?"*) and profess their love for the book's most iconic, very 90s, former cover. Plus, we'll hear from Marsha Quarles, a library associate at our South Bowie Branch, about the lasting impact of this book.
These Books Made Me is a podcast about the literary heroines who shaped us and is a product of the Prince George's County Memorial Library System podcast network. Stay in touch with us via Twitter @PGCMLS with #TheseBooksMadeMe or by email at TheseBooksMadeMe@pgcmls.info. For recommended readalikes and deep dives into topics related to each episode, visit our blog at https://pgcmls.medium.com/.
As a beloved historical fiction novel that tackles a difficult and important aspect of American history and that is often taught in schools, there’s a lot of background research to dive into with this book! Here are a few of the key resources we used.
Two articles about recent challenges to the inclusion of this book in school curriculum:
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2020-11-12/burbank-unified-challenges-books-including-to-kill-a-mockingbird
https://www.newsweek.com/kill-mockingbird-other-books-banned-california-schools-over-racism-concerns-1547241
And here’s the title’s listing in the ALA report of the top 10 banned books from the 2000s: https://bit.ly/2SSgkbi. It was most often cited for use of language.
Notably, Roll of Thunder is actually book 4 in a multi-part series about the Logan family. You can see the full series listing here, including the final addition to the series released in 2020: https://www.goodreads.com/series/54001-logans
If you’re interested in learning more about money and inflation from the early half of the 1900s:
https://www.tasteofhome.com/collection/this-is-what-groceries-cost-the-year-you-were-born/
