Newbery award winner Mildred D. Taylor (Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry) concludes the Logan family saga in this decades-spanning epic of self-discovery set against the backdrop of the U.S. civil rights movement.
Cassie's story picks up in 1944, 27 months after the events of The Road to Memphis, and follows the Logan family into the early 1960s. Now a young adult, Cassie follows her older brother Stacey to Toledo, Ohio, during the Great Migration, anxious to make a life away from the racism and brutality of their native Mississippi. But she and her family members quickly learn that while the North may not have "Whites Only" signs, segregation and racism persist throughout the post-World War II U.S. As the years pass, Cassie finds both the greatest love and grief of her life in California, sanctuary followed by betrayal in Colorado and a purpose and profession in Boston. However, Cassie feels anchored to her home in Mississippi by the unbroken circle of the Logan family and the fight for justice and equality for black Americans.
Taylor portrays coming-of-age as a lifelong process as Cassie, smart and determined as ever, faces discrimination, sexual harassment, pressure from her family to marry a man they find acceptable and threats to her loved ones' lives. Teen readers and adults who fondly recall the Logans during their previous spellbinding adventures will appreciate the mature themes, as well as Taylor's great gift for writing about ordinary people in extraordinary times. With this monumental closing chapter, the author fittingly ends her celebrated series. --Jaclyn Fulwood, youth services manager at Main Branch, Dayton Metro Library