Guest Author - Colette

In the 3rd grade my class went on a field trip to see Mildred D. Taylor speak to an auditorium full of students from the Flint Public School system. The year was 1976, and at that time there was not a plethora of black authors, and there certainly weren’t many female black authors writing for kids. As much as I loved to read, it never occurred to me that I could actually become a writer. That exposure led me to decide that I wanted to be a writer. Que sera sera and here I am.

On a trip to California to visit my sister this summer, I attended a family reading program (CAPS) that she attends with her children weekly. As luck would have it, the book that there were reading was Let the Circle Be Unbroken by non other than my Mildred D. Taylor — she will always be my Mildred D. Taylor.

Once I began reading the book, I became that little girl in the grade and I couldn’t put it down. The lives of the Logan family were just as compelling as ever. This novel is the sequel to Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry and we pick up where it left off. The Logan family faces hard times trying to raise their children the right way. In this story T.J Avery is accused of the murder of a white man, Jim Lee Barnett. "Though he is innocent," he is tried by an all white jury and proven guilty.T.J is Stacey Logan's best friend. Stacey will do anything in his power to try and to help his friend. T.J Avery gets the death penalty. Stacey is so frustrated that one late night he and two more of his friends set off to work. Stacey thought since he is getting older that he needed to work to help the family. The only thing he left was a hand written note. Everyone was so worried. Mamma, Papa, and Big Ma contacted police stations in the next couple of towns. By the end of the novel I there were tears running down my face.

I hope that I was able to provide a little inspiration to the group that I visited the way that Ms. Taylor did for me. I can’t wait to go back and read all of the novels by this author and I suggest that you do the same.

Mildred D. Taylor was born in Jackson Mississippi on 9-13-1943.Unwilling to expose his family to the brutality of racism, her father, with his family, joined the exodus of blacks heading north for better opportunities. Later they were joined by other extended family and Mildred D. Taylor grew up surrounded by aunts, uncles, and cousins. Throughout her childhood the family made several trips to the relatives that had stayed in the South. Many stories of the family history and actual childhoods were told during those visits, and were the core inspiration for Mildred Taylor’s stories and books.