NJJ & CG: What compels you to continue writing family stories? It will always be the most special book I have written. I knew it was going to be a breakthrough book. Unfortunately he did not live to see it published. I told him that day, this book is going to win the Newbery. When the song came I ran upstairs and told my father, “You’ve got to hear this.” I sang the song for him-everything came through in that song. I was worrying about the book when a song came to me, which was “Roll of Thunder.” I had prayed over the book because it was too hard. The intensity of those chapters made writing them very difficult. I was writing the last chapters at that time. My mother had to have surgery so I went home. Taylor: I was married and living in Los Angeles while writing that book. NJJ & CG: What do you remember about writing Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry But when I’m writing a story, I hear the voices-maybe not my father’s voice-but I always hear the characters, they way they talk and how they express themselves. Taylor: It really does, because I was never an outspoken child. NJJ & CG: Do you hear your father’s voice when you write? Does that propel your own writing? All of my books are based on something that happened to a family member or a story told by a family member, or they are based on something that happened to me when I was growing up. Whenever we went south to visit relatives, I heard stories. It won that honor and got my foot in the door. So I decided to retell it from the girl’s point of view. I tried writing it from a boy’s point of view because the story was based on my father’s life, but that didn’t work. The story I submitted was one I had previously written from several points of view [eventually published as A friend of mine told me about a contest that was sponsored by the Council on Interracial Books for Children. Taylor: I had been trying to write stories for years that were based on narratives told by my family, and everything was always rejected. NJJ & CG: How did you begin writing for children? Taylor’s stories reveal struggles, racial tension, and tragedy, as well as triumph, pride, and family honor. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, the 1977 Newbery Medal winner. Memories of those visits found their way into a series of stories about the Logan family, most notably

As a child, Taylor visited her great-grandfather’s house built at the turn of the past century, a house that didn’t have running water or electricity. Taylor grew up immersed in family stories. Johnson and Cyndi Giorgisīorn in Mississippi in 1943 and raised in Ohio, Mildred D. ALA Upcoming Annual Conferences & LibLearnXīook Links July 2006 (vol.15, no.6) by Nancy J.Related Groups, Organizations, Affiliates & Chapters.Dealing with censorship challenges at your library or need to get prepared for them? Visit our Fight Censorship page for easy-to-access resources.

Song of the trees by mildred d taylor