`Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry' by Mildred Taylor is a novel told through the eyes of Cassie Logan, a nine-year old living in the deep south of America during the 1930's. This book, which covers a year in the life of the Logan family, has many themes including land ownership, racism and social injustice and the history of their land and heritage passed down by the generations of the family.

The novel starts with the four Logan children walking to school for the start of the new term when they are joined by T.J Avery and his younger brother Claude. Stacey, who's on the edge of adulthood, is best friends with the slightly older T.J. He is the only in the group who has learned to accept the inevitability the black people will never be equal to white people. As the novel progresses, time passes...