The Road to Memphis [Paperback]

A stunning repackage of a companion to Mildred D. Taylor'sRoll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, with cover art by two-time Caldecott Honor Award winner Kadir Nelson!

As America hovers on the brink of war, seventeen year-old Cassie Logan fights a battle closer to home. She dreams of college and law school. But no amount of schooling can prepare her for the violent explosion that takes place when her friend Moe lashes out at his white tormentors--an action unheard of in Mississippi as the country prepares for World War II. Moe will be in even greater danger if he stays in town, so it is up to Cassie, her brother, and their friends to accompany Moe on the road to Memphis--and to safety.


Cassie recounts harrowing events during late 1941. An engrossing picture of fine young people endeavoring to find the right way in a world that persistently wrongs them. —Kirkus Reviews

An enlightening, moving novel. —Publishers Weekly Cassie recounts harrowing events during late 1941. An engrossing picture of fine young people endeavoring to find the right way in a world that persistently wrongs them. —Kirkus Reviews

An enlightening, moving novel. —Publishers Weekly

Mildred D. Taylor's novels about the Logan family have been hugely popular for two good reasons: They bring alive a fragment of the history of black life in the Deep South... [and] paint an appealingly detailed picture of the warm family relations and the embracing communal spirit to remind us that black life, day to day, however troubled, is not the disaster it looks like when it is simplified by sociology. There is pleasure, dignity, and palpable pride in Great Faith, near Strawberry, Miss., where the Logans are landowners with a fierce attachment to their own soil. —The New York Times

Powerful, readable, and fast-moving. —VOYA

This is a dramatic, painful book. &lâ