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Searching... Bayport Public Library | J FICTION TAY | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Jeremy Simms, a ten-year-old white boy and would-be friend of the Logan children, is dismayed to see a bus driver order black passengers off the bus, to make room for more white passengers.
Author Notes
Mildred D. Taylor was born in Jackson, Mississippi on September 13, 1943 and grew up in Toledo, Ohio. She received a Bachelor's degree in Education from the University of Toledo in 1965 and then spent two years in the Peace Corp teaching English and History in Ethiopia. She received a Master's degree in Journalism from the University of Colorado. During this time, she joined the Black Student Alliance and assisted in creating the black studies program at the university. After graduation and before becoming a full-time author, she worked for the Black Education Program as a study skills director.
Using her personal experiences and family stories she heard while growing up, Taylor has created several historical fiction books that offer realistic portraits of African-American families in the mid-1900s. Her novel Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry won the Newbery Award in 1977 and was made into a television movie in 1978. The Well: David's Story received the 1997 Jason Award. She has also received the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, the Jane Addams Book Award, the Coretta Scott King Award, and the Christopher Award multiple times. She currently lives in Colorado.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
The Newbery Medalist reprises the Logan family in telling a powerful story about the segregated South of the 1930s. Ages 7-11. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
In Depression-era Mississippi, Jeremy Sims, a ten-year-old white boy, watches as black passengers on a bus are forced to leave to make room for white passengers. He reacts with dismay, but then witnesses an ironic tragedy as the bus spins out of control into the flood-swollen river. Taylor has again underscored a moral dilemma without losing her sure grasp of narrative development. From HORN BOOK 1990, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Gr. 5-7. A bus tumbles off an old wooden bridge and a number of local people are killed, all of them white, because in Taylor's pre-civil-rights-era story all of the blacks have been ordered off the bus to make room for white latecomers. Is this a terrible, ironic justice (the Lord works in mysterious ways, says a character near the finish), or a simple twist of fate? It really doesn't matter; what does count is Taylor's vivid depiction of how many (but not all) white Southerners despised blacks. Events unfold through the colloquial narrative of Jeremy Simms, a 10-year-old white boy, who doesn't mind being on friendly terms with his black neighbors. (Readers may remember Jeremy from Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry [BKL O 1 76])On a rainy, late-winter Mississippi day, Jeremy watches as travelers straggle in (the Logan family among them) to catch the weekly bus. Two of the black people waiting suffer humiliating exchanges with the white men (one of them is Jeremy's father), and all of the blacks are tight-lipped on being ejected from the bus after they have paid their money and settled in for the trip. Inspired by family stories told by her father, Taylor has shaped this episode into a haunting meditation that will leave readers vividly informed about segregation practices and the unequal rights that prevailed in that era. The conclusion comes abruptly--it's almost as if Taylor ran out of things to say--but the incident and its context constitute a telling piece of social history. ~--Denise Wilms
School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-10-- Drawing once again upon her father's stories, Taylor has created a harsh, disturbing tale of racism in Mississippi during the 1930s. Told from the viewpoint of Jeremy Simms, a ten-year-old white boy who aspires to be friends with the black children of the Logan family, this is the story of a rainy day, an overloaded bus, and the destiny of its passengers after the driver has ordered the black travelers off to make room for latecoming whites. Telescoping the injustices faced by blacks on a daily basis into one afternoon drives home the omnipresent effects of racism with a relentless force. This is an angry book, replete with examples of the insults and injuries to which the African-American characters are subjected. Jeremy, the only white character to acknowledge this unfairness, is brought to task by his father for ``snivelin' '' after the Logans. The book's climax is a catastrophic accident in which the bus crashes off a bridge, killing the passengers. When Jeremy asks a black rescuer how such a thing could happen, he is told, ``the Lord works in mysterious ways.'' This is a disturbing explanation, not for its implication that the white passengers are being punished for the sins of their race so much as for the logical extension that the black characters were saved because they were kept off the bus in the first place. Well written and thought provoking, this book will haunt readers and generate much discussion. --Anna DeWind, Milwaukee Public Library (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Readers familiar with the several other stories in which the Logans appear know that a visit to the Wallace general store will lead to painful incidents of racial injustice. This time, it's back to 1931, with Stacey Logan's contemporary and sometime friend Jeremy Simms, who is white, narrating. The once-a-week bus is coming; as the would-be riders wait at the store, Taylor contrasts their treatment (only a white may try on a hat before buying it; a black man who allows that he has a new job is cruelly forced to lie and contradict himself). The bus is full; the blacks (including the Logans' Grandmama, going to care for a sick relative) are put off to make room for whites on less urgent errands. Then the decrepit local bridge chooses this day to give way, under the bus--not exactly divine retribution, since the characters who drown are the more innocent white people, but a satisfying irony nonetheless. Taylor, a powerful storyteller, again combines authentic incidents to create a taut plot. Jeremy's narrative, in dialect, is believable, though he gives no hint why only he, in his otherwise abusive, unredeemed family, has compassion for the blacks' situation. Taylor's cry for justice always rings true; but it would be even more potent if the other side were shown in fuller dimension. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
