Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry Award-winning

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor is reissued under the new Puffin Modern Classics series, A Puffin Book – stories that last a lifetime. There are over 30 titles in the series, some listed below, all with contemporary covers and interesting child-friendly endnotes.

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is the classic story of a girl growing up in the deep South. Set in Mississippi at the height of the American Depression, this is the story of a family’s struggle to maintain their integrity, pride and independence against the forces of a cruelly racist society.

‘We have no choice of what colour we’re born or who our parents are or whether we’re rich or poor. What we do have is some choice over what we make of our lives once we’re here.’

The Mississippi of the 1930s was a hard place for a black child to grow up in, but still Cassie didn’t understand why farming his own land meant so much to her father. During that year, though, when the night riders were carrying hatred and destruction among her people, she learned about the great differences that divided them, and when it was worth fighting for a principle even if it brought terrible hardships.

Mildred D. Taylor was born in Mississippi and grew up in Ohio. She worked in Ethiopia with the Peace Corps before enrolling at the School of Journalism at the University of Colorado, where she helped develop a Black Studies programme. She is best-known for her Newbery Medal winner, ROLL OF THUNDER, HEAR MY CRY. Mildred D. Taylor still lives in Colorado.

Also available in A Puffin Book: GOODNIGHT MISTER TOM and BACK HOME by Michelle Magorian CHARLOTTE’S WEB, STUART LITTLE and THE TRUMPET OF THE SWAN by E. B. White THE BORROWERS by Mary Norton STIG OF THE DUMP by Clive King ROLL OF THUNDER, HEAR MY CRY by Mildred D. Taylor A DOG SO SMALL by Philippa Pearce GOBBOLINO by Ursula Moray Williams CARRIE’S WAR by Nina Bawden MRS FRISBY AND THE RATS OF NIMH by Richard C O’Brien A WRINKLE IN TIME by Madeleine L’Engle THE CAY by Theodore Taylor TARKA THE OTTER by Henry Williamson WATERSHIP DOWN by Richard Adams SMITH by Leon Garfield THE NEVERENDING STORY by Michael Ende ANNIE by Thomas Meehan THE FAMILY FROM ONE END STREET by Eve Garnett